A “major power disruption” grounded operations at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Friday morning, leading to long lines and hours of delays.
The outage happened at Terminal 2, which plays host to Air Canada, Allegiant Air, and Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit, Sun Country and United Airlines, according to a statement the airport posted at 4:10 a.m.
By 8:55 a.m., about two-thirds of Terminal 2’s operating systems had been restored, officials said.
The outage was blamed on “water damage to a power distribution center in our main terminal,” according to an airport statement.
Staff “began responding to water damage” at Terminal 2 at about 1 a.m., according to the airport.
A rep didn’t immediately say what might have caused the water damage. A very small amount of rain, less than a tenth of an inch, fell on the Research Triangle between 8 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday.
Terminal 1, which houses Southwest Airlines, was not impacted.
The North Carolina hub serves 38 nonstop destinations and three international spots.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the airport averaged about 14 million passengers a year. It has since returned to about 75 percent of that traffic, an airport rep said.
This is a developing story. Please check here for updates.
Kurt Chirbas contributed.
