Flying in the Winter

[famsen]

So I just very recently faced my fear of flying and now we are planning a trip for the first week of January. I have only flown during the summer and fall but being that I live in Chicago, the first week of January can be snowy and icy with temperatures below zero. Is it any different flying in the extreme cold?
I understand that there may be more delays due to snow but how about the actual flight itself? Is there more turbulence? What about the de-icing process?

I'm just a little freaked and I want to know what to expect.

Thanks!

 

[taitai]

Winter flying is much easier than summer flying. Most of the delays airports experience are due to lightening. Planes won't fly through lightening. It is extremely rare to get a thunder and lightening type storm in the winter in the North. It is that hot turbulent air that causes the most bumps on flights and so winter flying tends to be smoother in my experience.

Finally, all the Northern airports are very adept at dealing with snow. Planes can land in the snowstorms as long as the runways are clear which they always tend to be. It really has to be a super large storm to close the airport.

Having said that, there are airports in the south that cannot deal with the random snow storm or ice. They are simply not used to them as they are so infrequent and do not have all the mechanisms in place that the Northern airports do. That causes problems as it is those southern airports that add the delays and cancellations to the system. If a plane can't get out of Dallas then it can't connect in Chicago to take you to wherever you want to go. Does that make sense?'

Have a great trip.

 

[ancestry]

Deicing is not a big deal. Once everyone is loaded on the aircraft the plane taxis over to the deicing station. The plane is squirted down with the deicing fluid. Sort of feels like the plane is going through a car wash station. The fluid sort of reminds me of the windshield washer fluid you put in your car in the winter -- the stuff that doesn't freeze.

Once the plane is completely squirted down then you taxi over to the run way and get in line for take off just like normal.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

It really has to be a super large storm to close the airport.

Yes, but it is usual for flights to be delayed during bad weather, often for many, many hours.

Personally, I have been delayed and had more flights canceled when flying through O'Hare due to weather than any other US airport. OP - take the earliest flight in the day you can, so if you are delayed or your flight is canceled, you have a better chance of getting on a later flight.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Yes, but it is usual for flights to be delayed during bad weather, often for many, many hours.

Personally, I have been delayed and had more flights canceled when flying through O'Hare due to weather than any other US airport. OP - take the earliest flight in the day you can, so if you are delayed or your flight is canceled, you have a better chance of getting on a later flight.

Agreed. I have also had issues with O'Hare since it is a major hub. The earlier your flight, the better.

 

[TheWog]

The actual flight won't really be any different, it is all the stuff that leads up to it as outlined above that are factors. Once in the air you will have a very similar experience (disclaimer: any flight can be different from the norm at any point) to your most recent flight. Deicing is not a huge deal and sometimes you don't even know you did it.

 

[taitai]

I guess this illustrates that everyone has their own experience. I used to fly out of O'Hare two or three times a week for 7 years and my weather delays were ALWAYS due to late afternoon summer thunder storms. I was never delayed by snow or ice due to O'Hare. Maybe because another airport couldn't get the plane out.

I now live in Minneapolis and the airport here is just amazing. It never closes due to weather. Maybe planes can't get out of their home airports to get in to us but we have never had a winter delay. Summer storms, yes, but we personally have never had a winter delay.

 

[sam_gordon]

Deicing is not a big deal. Once everyone is loaded on the aircraft the plane taxis over to the deicing station. The plane is squirted down with the deicing fluid. Sort of feels like the plane is going through a car wash station. The fluid sort of reminds me of the windshield washer fluid you put in your car in the winter -- the stuff that doesn't freeze.

Once the plane is completely squirted down then you taxi over to the run way and get in line for take off just like normal.

My only concern would be how many de-icing stations there are vs. how many planes are departing. Too many planes = delay @ de-icing. While the process is straight forward, I wouldn't exactly say it's quick. The last two times I flew and needed de-icing, they were small regional jets and once the de-icing started, it was still an extra 15-30 minutes. A larger plane

Now, I'm assuming O'Hare is set up better than Little Rock, Arkansas , but the other was Atlanta.

 

[Elmo007]

The one thing I would do with winter flying is to stick with one airline roundtrip. I had a flight last year going on AA and returning on SW. The AA flight was canceled and I could not get a flight down. SW was cool about it and let me get credit. Most other airlines would have told me tough noogies.


Also my experience is that AA is the most restrictive in rebooking if there is an approching snow storm. Jetblue,SW and others were rebooking to earlier flights while AA canceled me even though I tried to go the day before the snow

 

[Pembo]

Wanted to add, there is nothing better than flying out in the snow and landing in the sunshine...

 

[TheWog]

Wanted to add, there is nothing better than flying out in the snow and landing in the sunshine...

Amen to that. in '08 we took off from Boston it was 28 degrees and a major 12 inch + snow storm the night before, landed in Nassau 3 hours later and it was 88 degrees. 60 degree swing. Quite nice!

 

[NotUrsula]

Ah, Camp O'Hare...

Taking the first flight of the day is the best advice; it isn't that Chicago's airports cannot handle ice and snow on the ground (they definitely can), but flights coming in or out can get stacked up because they have to slow down the arrival/departure interval for low visibility and the possibility of runway skids.

One thing to note about taking the very first flight: the plane will most likely be FREEZING when you board. They don't heat it up ahead of time, and since it's all metal and plastic, the interior gets frigid sitting overnight. It normally takes about 30 minutes after takeoff for it to get fully warmed up inside, so plan to keep your coat and gloves on for awhile.

As for summer thunderstorms, yep, they can be nightmarish at ORD. Someone wrote a Pulitzer-prize winning news series about it for the Trib a few years back: http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6439
(Note: the September 11th referred to in this story is 09/11/2000, one year before the WTC attack.)