Power restored at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, delays continue Monday evening

PHOENIX — Six hours after suffering a power outage that impacted dozens of flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Monday morning — and left thousands of travelers scrambling to reschedule their plans — the Transportation Security Administration said in a tweet that power had been restored.

Even with power restored, it will likely take some time for the impacted airlines to recover from the hours-long debacle. Travelers were encouraged to continue to check the status of their flights with their airline. Check current status of Sky Harbor flights here.

Sky Harbor said delays are likely to continue into Monday evening.

Several flights from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines were delayed or canceled Monday morning after a power outage within Terminal 4 impacted operations. Power was also knocked out at Terminal 3, which operates flights for Frontier Airlines and Delta Air Lines, but was restored about an hour after the outage began.

The airport said it was notified by APS around 8:05 a.m. that it was experiencing a partial power outage at the airport, which impacted both Terminal 3 and 4. Around 9 a.m., power to Terminal 3 was restored, the airport said.

"This morning APS crews were performing maintenance on the electrical system that serves Sky Harbor in preparation for the upcoming busy travel season when a failure occurred in a piece of equipment called a switching cabinet. We’re looking into what caused that failure," APS said in an updated statement Monday afternoon.

An APS working was injured and taken to the hospital. That worker was released from the hospital and is recovering at home, APS said.

"The health and wellbeing of our crew is of the utmost importance to us, and we will continue to monitor the employee’s condition," the utility said.

Sky Harbor said in total 200 flights were delayed, more than 90 flights were canceled, and more than 15 flights that were headed to Phoenix had to be diverted to other airports. American and Southwest are the main airlines that operate out of Terminal 4, the airport's busiest terminal, and were the most impacted by the outage.

A total of 68 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled and 10 flights were diverted, according to a statement released by the company Monday afternoon. They do expect any issues into Tuesday.

Monday afternoon, American Airlines said out of its 148 flights remaining Monday, 44 were delayed. They also told customers in an email that because of the outage, they were experiencing long lines at check-in, bag drop, to see customer service agents, and to get through security.

Because of that, American was recommending travelers arrive at the airport three hours before their flight.

In addition to flights being affected, restaurants, stores, and checkpoint operations were also impacted, a spokesperson for Sky Harbor and TSA said.

Watch Monday morning video from the scene below.

Viewer Paul Mpistolarides shared the following video, showing passengers in the mostly dark airport.

According to ABC15 crews at the airport, automatic toilets in some parts of Terminal 4 were also not working just before noon as work continued to be done to restore airport operations.

Airport officials confirmed, "some restrooms are out of order on level 2 of Terminal 4. Restrooms are open on level 3 and on the west end of levels 1 and 2" for anyone in the terminal.

This is a developing situation. Stay with ABC15 News for updates.