Peer review: Impact of Snow and Ice

Respond to at least one peer post to meet the participation requirements.

One of the largest repercussions of winter weather is when flights have to be cancelled. This creates a ripple effect reaching throughout an airline's network, causing delays and cancellations to cascade through the system as airplanes and crews aren't in the locations that the airline's schedulers wanted them to be. Good snow removal at all airports in important to minimize the impacts of winter weather on air operations.

Many travelers mistakenly think that connections in southern cities should be preferred during the winter because the lower likelihood of winter weather should equate to a higher likelihood of on-time flights. This is, in fact, the opposite of what is true. In all but the most mild winters, southern airports usually have more trouble sticking to the schedule than northern ones (McGee, 2015). Most of this is because (like the airport I toured) many southern airports don't plan for winter weather because it occurs so seldom (Dowell, 2019).

Northern airports know they will get snow and ice and are able to remove it quickly. Southern airports are usually at the mercy of the weather, and a small amount of snow can completely shut them down. This impact has been seen in recent years, with several harsher than normal winters causing many issues at southern airports. The is probably little than can be done to mitigate this issue. In most southern locations, snow rarely sticks around long enough that it is worth it to buy a huge fleet of snowplows to clear it. While every airport should probably have one small snowplow just in case a fluke of a polar system causes temperatures to hover below freezing for several days, this will not likely help with most snow accumulation because the snow will melt before one plow can clear an entire airport. 

Dowell, M. (2019, September23). Personal Communication.

McGee, B. (2015, March 18). Which hub airports are best in winter? Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/mcgee/2015/03/18/airports-winter-on-time-flight-delays-cancellations/24906949/