Airline Weather Shocks Come Faster Than Ever as Climate Changes
- U.S. carriers discard old assumptions, bolster alternate hubs
- What had been three-hour downpours now ‘seem to last all day’
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.”