MOSINEE, WI (WSAU) -- The mass amounts of snowfall over the past week have not only made it difficult for driving, but it's also affecting flights as well.
The Central Wisconsin Airport saw just under half of its flights canceled or delayed on Tuesday morning after receiving nearly a foot of snow. CWA's Airport Director Brian Grefe says when clearing off runways for incoming flights with this much snow, the airport follows a priority system.
"We have a priority system, a pretty simple one through three. And the higher priority, priority one is runways, primary taxi lay arteries going to and from runways and then parking areas in front of the airport terminal. So when we're in this heavy snow, we are focused primarily on priority one surfaces."
Grefe explains the main challenge with continuous snow is getting to the other areas in the priority system. "And the challenge gets into is when this continues on for several hours at a time we do eventually need to get to those priority two and priority three lower priority surfaces to make sure they're passable as well and don't have a bottleneck. So we put on extra people to try to stay ahead of that."
For those flying over the next couple of days, Grefe recommends staying in touch with their airline regarding any weather based delays or cancellations. "Stay in communication with your airline. Every airline operating policy are different. I would highly recommend downloading each of their apps, whether its Delta, American, United. They really do a good job of communicating to the passengers on their apps. Or if you register a phone number or email when you book your tickets."
Grefe says another important part of flights in weather like this is airports reporting conditions back to airlines so they can make informed decisions about delays and cancellations. With snow conditions lightening, Grese expects remaining flights to arrive and depart as scheduled.
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