Delta Air Lines: Southern snow, ice cause additional flight disruptions

Delta employees at airports throughout the Southeastern U.S. and along the Gulf Coast are digging out after a winter storm brought snow and ice to several airports throughout the region. The airline has canceled an additional 200 mainline and Delta Connection regional flights as a result of accumulation and strong winds. Tuesday the airline had originally cancelled 400 flights.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — where Delta maintains its largest hub and where temperatures are expected to remain below freezing all day Wednesday — saw more than 1.5 inches of snow on the ground, prompting extensive aircraft deicing and the closure of some of the airport’s five runways early Wednesday morning.

Operations in Atlanta are resuming, though at a slowed pace. Delta doesn’t expect a significant number of cancellations for flights into or out of Atlanta or in other airports in the Southeast, as the airline rebounds its operation. As always, customers are encouraged to check the status of their flight via Delta.com or the Fly Delta Mobile App and a winter weather waiver is in effect for customers flying to, through or from those affected airports.

To help speed the operational recovery, Delta called in members of its Deicing Go Team — a cadre of seasoned deicers from the airline’s Minneapolis hub — who will work in Atlanta throughout the day to clear aircraft of snow and ice.

Delta’s operational leaders are setting their sights on the Northeast and New England, where snow began to fall Wednesday morning. A limited number of flights at New York’s LaGuardia and Boston Logan International have been canceled as a result, though Delta does not expect a significant disruption at those or other Northeastern airports.