Last week’s Chicago air traffic control fire caused nearly 3,900 flight cancellations over four days, and cost nearly $123 million in passengers’ lost economic activity, according to an estimate by the U.S. Travel Association.
U.S. Travel said that that the cancellation of one U.S. domestic flight costs $31,600 in passengers' direct economic activity.
The direct-impact figure includes the cost of canceled trips, passenger time lost, missed connections and missed travel activities. Calculations do not include the economic impact of delayed flights.
Because of discrepancies in how each airline tabulates its costs, there is no industry-wide data available for the airline sector, U.S. Travel said.
An employee set the early morning fire on Sept. 27 in an air traffic control center in Aurora, Ill.