Dozens of flights were canceled and delayed at MSP as the winter storm moved in
Travelers hoping to travel to—or to—Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport played a game of chance against Mother Nature on Sunday, as snow began falling during the morning hours.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m., the number of canceled arrivals reached 47 people, while the number of canceled departures reached 66 people.
As of 10 p.m., this number had risen to 50 canceled arrival flights, and 79 canceled departure flights. Meanwhile, 107 arriving flights were delayed at that time, while 92 departing flights were delayed.
The cancellations and delays come as a storm system moves in that is expected to bring up to 10 inches of snow to the area. This has prompted some municipalities to declare a snow emergency. A complete list of snow events can be found at Click here.
“I'm a little disappointed, but honestly, I was kind of expecting this to happen,” said traveler Shane Coby.
It's a game of chance, but Mother Nature holds all the cards.
“Our flight to D.C. has been cancelled, and what's happening right now is my mother is in line trying to get us a flight tomorrow morning,” Kobe said. “As long as we can get a flight tomorrow morning that means we'll be there in a reasonable time.”
Travelers mustered their patience and optimism as they headed to MSP on Sunday.
“Well, so far, the plane has arrived on time as written on the board. Not until 8:00,” said passenger Sherdith Greenhagen. “Eventually, we hope to make it to Bangkok.”
The number of flight cancellations and delays began to increase as Mother Nature dropped inches of snow across the state.
Passengers heading on vacation or to catch up with their families are keeping their fingers crossed that they will be able to get out.
Others are happy to be home even if it is a warm welcome back with an early spring snowstorm.
“It's almost the end of March and we're having a snowstorm? It kind of follows Minnesota's reputation,” Kobe said. “Snow, just always snow.”
MSP issued a statement that said in part:
During winter storms, MAC's airport maintenance team assigns two runway/winter operations taxi teams to the airport around the clock. The goal is to maintain flight operations on at least two runways. Depending on weather conditions, we can scale resources to use up to 180 pieces of specialized vehicles and equipment during a winter storm. The mix of equipment used changes based on changing expectations and conditions. Recruitment is of course another big part of the response. We have approximately 320 personnel between MAC and contractor teams to support snow removal and storm response efforts during the winter. In the event of a storm this weekend, our full resources will be activated and we will remain on site long after the storm has passed.
According to the latest forecast from the Minnesota Weather Service, snowfall will move steady to heavy across the southern half of Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, with heavy snow continuing to fall throughout the evening and into the early overnight hours.
Not only is the weather causing cancellations at the airport, some schools and programs have already decided to move classes online or cancel them entirely for Monday. You can find a constantly updated list of school closings here.
click here To check your flight status and here To get the latest forecasts.
