The weather is wreaking havoc with travel on the ground — and in the air. Roy Criss, a spokesman for the Des Moines International Airport, says bad weather anywhere can upset your flight schedule.
"As a matter of fact, it may be sunny and just fine here, but there’s a weather problem between here and where your plane is coming in from or between here and where your plane it going to," Criss says. "That plane just ain’t gonna make it." Heavier than usual air traffic around the holidays heightens the potential for weather-connected chaos at the airport.
Criss says it’s always best to check with your airline first, before heading to the airport. "Jump on their website, take a look at the status of the flight or call that 800 number where you can track that flight and find out if that flight’s going to come in and find out if that flight is planning to out and I would do that often. I would just stay on it as best you can," Criss says. "In this environment where the airlines have reduced capacity, which means they’ve limited the number of seats, if you happen to miss your flight it may be a while before you can get out of here because they just don’t have the seats available."
At five o’clock Thursday night, before the storm system had reached Des Moines, 11 incoming flights and four departing flights had already been cancelled at the Des Moines airport.