The World Is Waiting Here

Lines of tired, cranky travelers snaked outside Salt Lake City International Airport on Monday as Olympic spectators, athletes and coaches tried to leave town on the busiest day in the airport's history.

Many passengers missed their flights on Olympic sponsor Delta Air Lines, which appeared to have the most trouble accommodating the throngs that swamped Terminal 2 the day after the Closing Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Games.

One was Eric Paterson, a goalie on the Canadian hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, Norway. He arrived 4 1/2 hours before his flight -- an hour earlier than airport officials advised -- and had not made it to the Delta baggage check-in when his flight left. "This is no gold-medal performance," Paterson said. "It's put a real damper on the delightful four days we've spent here in Salt Lake City."

Paterson had plenty of company. Olympic ice dancing gold medalists Gwendal Peizerat and Marina Anissina missed their flight on Delta, the major occupant of Terminal 2. So did scores more -- though exact figures were unavailable -- after being mired for hours in baggage check-in lines that ran the full length of the terminal and spilled out into the parking lot. Lines for skycap service and at security checkpoints leading to airport concourses were also long and confusing.

Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney, there to greet SLOC volunteers, said his agency was not to blame.

"We can't even get past the security checkpoints," he said. "This is not a SLOC function. It is being run by the airport and the airlines."

There seemed to be little confusion on that score. Most of those who had trouble blamed Delta, while a few others singled out the airport.

"[Delta officials] knew the Games were coming, and it looks like they have done nothing to prepare for them," said Erica Bulman, a reporter at The Associated Press' Geneva bureau, as she contemplated missing her flight and her best friend's wedding.

"This is such a fiasco they ought to hide their faces in shame," she said. "This makes the Games in Atlanta [infamous for its transportation problems] look brilliant."

Peter Andrews, a photographer with the Reuters news agency in Warsaw, Poland, missed his Delta flight after an airline official placed him in the wrong baggage check-in line for over an hour.

"I've never seen an airline from a first-world country perform so badly," he said. "This is totally unacceptable."

The Atlanta-based Delta, which operates a regional hub at Salt Lake City, is the airport's major carrier. Spokeswoman Peggy Estes attributed Delta's problems to having more flights and passengers departing Salt Lake City than the other carriers.

"People have been traveling to Salt Lake City to attend the Olympics over a period of 17 days, and now there is a mass exodus," she said. "We are working with our passengers because we know this is an inconvenience."

Airport Director Tim Campbell agreed, saying it looked like Delta was fully staffed and doing its best.

Delta officials were rebooking flights and offering full refunds to passengers who missed flights at no additional charge. Estes said Delta also added one extra evening flight to help with departures. The airline was also able to rebook a few passengers on competing airlines, although most other air carriers were also at capacity.

While tempers simmered at Delta's terminal, passengers at Terminal 1 were more even-tempered. Few there missed flights, even though the line to get into the secure concourse area stretched from the checkpoint all the way around the west wing of the terminal. The lines at baggage check-in counters were also long, but shorter and faster than the ones in Terminal 2.

To placate passengers in lines, performers clowned around and airport volunteers passed out bottled water and chocolate medallions wrapped in gold foil.

On the news last night, I also saw Scott Hamilton, Vonetta Flowers and her husband waiting in line. One article I read today said that Ottavio Cinquanta had to stand in line with everyone else, that made me very happy. This article is about the chaos from Monday, and sounds like the situation hasn't much changed from yesterday. Not as many people at the airport today, but many more than expected because those who missed their flights came back today, along with everyone who had flights today.

And to add insult to injury, the airport played the theme song from the movie 'National Lampoon's Vacation', "Holiday Road..."

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I'm with you, I was thinking "Well, duh...close to 100,000 people are going to try to go home on Sunday and Monday, put your flight off for a couple more days." I heard one Olympian say he wasn't surprised because he had been to other Olympics and the exact same thing had occurred...

The airplanes may have had enough seats, but the security hassles since 9/11 bog everything down.... everywhere. Smart planners would have booked a flight out for Wednesday. ;-)

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