Airlines prepare for flying in hotter temps
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Once the busy summer travel season was over, Feinstein said the airline approached Montreal-based Bombardier, the manufacturer of the regional jets that were grounded in the heat wave, to see if the planes could fly at higher temperatures.
The company won that approval from US and Canadian regulatory agencies in May, said Bombardier spokeswoman Nathalie Siphengphet.
The maximum temperature at which Bombardier CRJS can fly depends on altitude, but from Phoenix, it’s now around 123°F , up from about 118°F. Bombardier’s competitor, Brazil’s Embraer has taken similar steps and its new E190 E2 regional jet, which started service this April, can operate at higher temperatures than previous models.
“Rising temperatures have been an important design consideration for Embraer,” the company said in a statement.
It’s not just your eyes. Airline seats really are getting smaller. It’s not just your eyes. Airline seats really are getting smaller.
Higher temperatures could make flying more unpleasant for travelers. A 2017 University of Reading study based on computer models found that hotter air could increase strong turbulence in the coming decades by generating instabilities in air flows at high altitudes.
“It’s normal to break some records every year,” said Adam Allgood, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It’s much easier to break a record high than a record low because the trends are toward warming.”
More flights are generally canceled during the winter months than during the summer in the US, according to flight-tracking site Flightaware, but thunderstorms can be tough to forecast.
Compared with large, slowmoving winter storms, or even hurricanes, thunderstorms can develop suddenly and dissipate within an hour. That can leave passengers in the lurch with long delays when bad flying weather hits big hubs like Delta’s in Atlanta or American’s that serves Dallas-fort Worth.
Delta learned that the hard way during a meltdown in April 2017, when thunderstorms lingered over Atlanta longer than expected and it canceled more than 3,000 flights over spring break. Crews were out of position to restaff new flights, frustrating travelers and dragging the problem out for about a week.
Delta has since added staff to its crew-tracking team and enhanced software to predict which crew members might run into cancellations or delays that would further disrupt flights, spokesman Michael Thomas said.
That helps it foresee potential problems and make sure needed crew members aren’t flying to destinations where flights can’t take off, which can compound bad-weather chaos, he said.
United spokesman Charlie Hobart said the airline has taken similar steps to improve restaffing around unpredictable weather delays.
Delta and American say they have also enhanced self-service applications for passengers to rebook themselves if a flight is canceled. This will be the first summer a feature on American’s rebooking tool will be widely available for travelers.
“From a customer perspective, the best place to do that is before they get to the airport,” said American Airlines’ Feinstein.
Airlines routinely allow travelers to travel on different dates ahead of a blizzard or hurricane, or if or even if thunderstorms are expected. In warmer months, there’s often less lead time.