With another winter storm bearing down on Iowa, the state’s commercial-service airports are urging travelers with a ticket to fly this weekend to plan ahead for the chance that weather will disrupt flights. Roy Criss is the spokesman for the Des Moines International Airport.
"I think I would call my carrier," he says, "or get on their website" and check for any cancellations. He says you should check the status of the flight. "With this storm coming through, we don’t know where it’s gonna go, how bad it’s gonna be, and you certainly want to know if your plane’s actually going to take off, or take off on time before you leave home."
He says there’s no point in driving to your local airport if the weather’s bad, before checking to see if your trip is canceled. Criss explains you should take a look at the weather picture for the destination where you’re hoping to travel.
Just because it looks okay here, he points out if you’re heading for Chicago or Denver and there’s stormy weather there, you won’t be able to get out of town on a flight to that destination. In addition to a winter storm warning for much of Iowa beginning this evening, there are blizzard alerts in Colorado and Nebraska and a storm watch for Chicago…some of the areas travelers may head to or pass through in their travel plans.