Power Outage forces cancellation of Several Flights at New York’s La Guardia Airport

A power outage at New York's La Guardia Airport on Friday led to cancellation of several flights of Delta Air Lines and delay of several other flights. An airlines spokeswoman revealed the news after several passengers faced troubles.

The cancellations of the flights accounted for approximately 30% of Delta's scheduled flights into and out of La Guardia, which is a hub for the airline, the spokeswoman said.

The power outage occurred when contract employees hit power lines while digging at the airport. The incident led to the loss of power to portions of Terminal C around 4:30 a.m., officials for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Lysa Scully, who manages the airport for the authority, said in a statement that they restored the electricity with the help of gas-fueled backup generators about five hour later.

The outage threw a wrench into travel for thousands of passengers and resulted in a chaotic scene at the airport early Friday. A line to speak to Delta agents inside Terminal D stretched dozens deep and an attendant said she had never seen such a long queue.

Airport workers were flooded with inquiries from confused passengers. According to FlightAware, an aviation-tracking service, flights headed to La Guardia were delayed at their origins for an average of about three hours at one point.

A Port Authority spokeswoman said that J.P. Hogan Coring & Sawing Corp., a subcontractor for a general contractor was responsible for the entire work.

Port Authority officials said the outage affected portions of Terminal C and two parking lots, as well as passenger loading bridges connecting the terminal to planes.