Traffic distruption

Surface flooding on neighbouring roads and an alleged power outage have caused delays both in the air and on the ground at San Diego International Airport today, with an estimated 223 flight delays and more than 46 cancellations at the time of writing. The unconfirmed reports have suggested that runway path indicator lights are out at the downtown airport.San Diego International Airport (SAN) is one of the busiest airports in California (after Los Angeles and San Francisco), with the airport serving more than 80 non-stop domestic and international destinations. The alleged power outage has been causing havoc with flights today.Simple Flying reached out to San Diego International Airport for further details on what has been occuring howeve,r they did not immediately respond by the time this article was published. We will update this when we receive a response.Many travelers have taken to social media looking for additional information on the alleged power outage. One Reddit post identifies that there was a power outage which has affected critical airport infrastructure and led to flights being unable to arrive or depart from SAN. This has led to Runway 9 being down, making flights be switched to Runway 27.As a result, the number of flights that have been able to arrive or depart from SAN is limited, with Flightradar24 identifying many flights have been diverted to other airports in and around Los Angeles, including Ontario International Airport (ONT), and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and further afield, such as Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX).The airport has warned passengers to expect delays in arriving and departing from San Diego. This was initially due to surface flooding around the airport's arterial roadways. However, this has now extended to arriving and departing flights. SAN has also been hit with fog, which has limited the airport's operations. The Federal Aviation Administration shared an ATCSCC Advisory, which included the following message:

Event Time

02/0050 - 02/0500

Constrained Facilities

ZLA (Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center) / SAN (San Diego International Airport)

Message

ZLA USERS CAN EXPECT TBFM / CALL-FOR-RELEASE SCHEDULING DELAYS TO SAN DIEGO AIRPORT OF 30 TO 45 MINUTES FROM DEPARTURE AIRPORTS WITHIN THE FIRST TIER FACILITIES.

Effective Time

02/0052 - 02/0530

Queues for security screening at the airport have been reported as moderate, with waits of around 15 minutes if traveling with PreCheck or 25 minutes as regular. Many flights are experiencing delays of up to three hours, with some passengers considering getting rental cars for short journeys.There are also claims that the majority of Southwest Airlines flights to and from SAN have been cancelled or delayed for the remainder of the day. Simple Flying reached out to Southwest for comment.Located just 2.6 miles (4.8 km) from the heart of San Diego, the airport is the busiest single-runway airport in the entire United States. It covers a relatively small footprint of just 663 acres (268 ha). The airport is in controlled airspace, overseen by the Southern California TRACON. The airport serves the city of San Diego, neighboring Tijuana (Mexico), and parts of Southern California.The airport's unique approach makes it popular for aviation enthusiasts, given its proximity to the San Diego central business district. Pilots have to be well skilled in operatiat to the airport due to the relatively short landing area, and steep descent over the Bankers Hill area.
Welcoming more than 20 airline operators to the airport, the airline with the largest presence at SAN is Southwest Airlines, which, with data from the airport identifying that the Dallas-based low-cost carrier maintains approximately 33% of all flight operations. This is followed by Alaska Airlines (18%), United Airlines (12%), and Delta Air Lines (12%) - data is based on the dates between October 2024 and September 2025.The most popular domestic routes from the airport include San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix, while the top international routes stretch as far as London Heathrow, San Jose del Cabo, Vancouver, and Munich.