Nearly 500 flights headed in and out of Denver International Airport were delayed on Sunday amid severe thunderstorm watches for most of the Denver area and Eastern Plains.
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As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, 490 Denver flights had failed to leave the gate on time and six had been canceled, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware.
The Federal Aviation Administration had issued a ground delay for DIA at that time, delaying flights by an average of 29 minutes, according to the agency. Delays were expected to continue into the evening, with the longest expected between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Most of Eastern Colorado was under a severe thunderstorm watch on Sunday, including Adams, Arapahoe, Baca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Otero, Phillips, Prowers, Pueblo, Sedgwick, Teller, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties, according to the National Weather Service.
Scattered hail up to the size of ping pong balls, 70mph wind and frequent lightning will be possible, forecasters said.
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Southwest delayed 179 flights on Sunday, followed by 126 from SkyWest, 114 from United, 17 from Frontier, 16 from American Airlines and 10 from Delta, according to FlightAware. Another nine airlines delayed between one and seven flights.
Cancellations included three United flights, two Southwest flights and one Frontier flight.
Delays were nearly evenly split between flights arriving in Denver and flights trying to leave the city, according to FlightAware. All but one of the canceled flights were scheduled to arrive in Denver.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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