Climate Change Is the New Reason Your Flight Is Delayed
Extreme weather is no longer exceptional, and that’s forcing changes at some of the world’s most diligent storm trackers: airlines.
Weather delays in the U.S. have been trending higher the past four years, upending historical patterns and jumping to an 11-year high for this year’s summer storm season, according to government data for the 30 biggest airports. In June, for example, United Airlines Holdings Inc.’s Denver hub registered as many disruptive storms as it had for the entire previous summer.
“We’re going to anticipate that the summer weather is probably going to be a little more difficult than traditionally -- that this is not going to be changing,” Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in an interview. “We’ve seen a pattern here, certainly in the last couple of years.”
Fast-moving summer storms tend to cause more last-minute disruptions because they’re hard to predict. But airlines have also noticed that those events -- as well as ice and snowstorms in winter -- last longer than in the past, said Jim DeYoung, United’s vice president of network operations, citing conversations at industry gatherings.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-11/airline-weather-shocks-come-faster-than-ever-as-climate-changes?utm_source=Sightline%20Institute&utm_medium=web-email&utm_campaign=Sightline%20News%20Selections
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