Ground stop at Denver (DEN), Oct 22, 2026

EndedRunway construction halts Denver departures for about an hour

Started: Thu, Oct 22, 3:37 PM MDT21:37 UTC
Ended: Thu, Oct 22, 4:40 PM MDT22:40 UTC
Duration: 1 hr 3 min
Cause: runway construction

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What happened

AI-written · may contain mistakes. Written from the advisory text and weather only.

Cause: Construction work on a runway at Denver's airport made it unsafe or impractical to keep sending planes out, so departures were paused.

The ground stop began at 21:37 UTC on October 22, 2026, and was lifted at 22:40 UTC, lasting 1 hour and 3 minutes. Flights leaving from 14 air traffic control centers across the country were held. The stop was scheduled to run until 22:45 UTC and was not extended.

Impact by airline

Aircraft seen on the ground at DEN and holding nearby, by airline.

Airline	On ground	Holding
United Airlines UA	27	—
Southwest Airlines WN	11	—
SkyWest Airlines OO	8	—
Frontier Airlines F9	5	—
American Airlines AA	2	—
Alaska Airlines AS	1	—
Delta Air Lines DL	1	—
Lufthansa LH	1	—
FedEx Express FX	1	—
Volaris Y4	1	—

Impact by region

Air traffic control centers whose departures to the airport were held.

Center	Status
Albuquerque Center (ZAB)	Held
Chicago Center (ZAU)	Held
Denver Center (ZDV)	Held
Fort Worth Center (ZFW)	Held
Houston Center (ZHU)	Held
Indianapolis Center (ZID)	Held
Kansas City Center (ZKC)	Held
Los Angeles Center (ZLA)	Held
Salt Lake City Center (ZLC)	Held
Memphis Center (ZME)	Held
Minneapolis Center (ZMP)	Held
Oakland Center (ZOA)	Held
Cleveland Center (ZOB)	Held
Seattle Center (ZSE)	Held

Aircraft at the airport

Peak 64 on the ground, 0 holding nearby.

On the ground Holding nearby

Timeline

Every change published while the ground stop was in effect, as seen each minute.

Oct 22, 3:37 PM MDT
Ground stop issued at DEN for runway construction, until 4:45 pm MDT. Departures held from ZLA, ZAU, ZLC, ZHU and 10 more.
Oct 22, 4:40 PM MDT
Ground stop ended after 1 hr 3 min.

Advisories

The air traffic control advisories issued for this ground stop, as published.

ATCSCC ADVZY 082 DEN/ZDV 10/22/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: DEN
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 2134Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 22/2135Z - 22/2245Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (2ndTier) ZLA ZAU ZLC ZHU ZFW ZOB ZDV ZOA
 ZSE ZKC ZME ZID ZAB ZMP
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 0 / 0 / 0
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 2670 / 71 / 36
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: RWY-TAXI / CONSTRUCTION
COMMENTS:

Original advisory ↗

How it is measured

Status, timeline, cause and held centers: the national airspace status feed, checked every minute, and the air traffic control advisories it links to.
Delays by airline and region: departures and arrivals at DEN 30 or more minutes late, by their estimated delay against the schedule, sampled every 10 minutes while the stop is active and once more after it ends.
Totals and cancellations: arrival and departure boards for DEN, every 30 minutes while active and once more after the end. Delayed means 15 or more minutes late at DEN; cancelled is the airline's cancelled status; codeshares count once. Flights scheduled from the start until an hour after the end are counted.
Held at origin: the same arrivals boards, which carry each flight's scheduled and actual departure from its origin. A flight is held when it is still scheduled, not departed, 15 or more minutes past its scheduled departure at a sample taken during the stop. In scope: its origin is in a held center or listed facility; flights from elsewhere are late for other reasons.
Inbound in the air: the same arrivals boards. At each board taken during the stop, a flight to DEN is in the air when it has departed (en route, or with an actual departure time) and not landed, cancelled or diverted; one still shown in the air over an hour past its arrival estimate, or departed more than 18 hours earlier, is treated as stale and left out.
Diversions: an inbound flight marked diverted during the stop or the wrap-up after it (not one marked before it could have departed), or one still shown in the air 30+ minutes past its arrival estimate that ADS-B (by its ICAO call sign) then found on the ground at another airport, not its origin. The diversion airport is the airport ADS-B found it at, else the updated destination. Cancellations never count. Regional flights flown under another call sign can't be found on ADS-B, so their diversion airport may be unknown.
Aircraft on the ground and holding: ADS-B positions around DEN, every 5 minutes; the airline is read from the call sign. Holding counts airline flights only (passenger, regional and cargo), not private, military or medical flights.
Weather: METARs, SIGMETs and weather alerts.
News: headline links filtered to this airport and these days; we show titles and links only.

Data sources are listed on the credits page.