Flights grounded at Sea-Tac due to snow and ice. How will it impact your travel plans?
Departures to Seattle-Tacoma Airport were grounded due to snow or ice as of 10:08 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Airspace System Status.
The south Puget Sound region saw snow and freezing temperatures Tuesday morning. Northwest Washington state will pick up several inches of snow, and the south Puget Sound area will pick up less than an inch of snow before the precipitation turns into rain later Tuesday.
The status stated the ground stop would continue to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and the probability of an extension was medium – 30 percent to 60 percent.
As of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, 205 flights were delayed and 146 flights were canceled at Sea-Tac. Seventy-one flights were canceled and 100 were delayed that were leaving SEA, and 75 flights were canceled and 105 were delayed arriving to SEA, as of Tuesday morning.
Perry Cooper, media relations manager at SEA, advised travelers to check with their airline, since it will have the best information about flight delays and cancellations.
Aircraft departing from Sea-Tac were being sprayed with deicing fluid to remove snow and ice as of 8 a.m., according to the system status. As of 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, the average delay was 34 minutes for departures, due to snow or ice.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport posted on its Facebook page Tuesday morning it was ready for snow.
“We’re aware of and ready to respond to anticipated winter weather,” it stated. “Our team will remove snow on the runways, taxiways and ramp areas in and around the gates and cargo area when needed and continue our normal cold weather operations with ongoing de-icing maintenance of runways, taxiways and ramp areas.”
Cooper said big crowds stuck at Sea-Tac was not anticipated, since airlines are good about alerting passengers before they come to the airport about cancellations or delays and the airport is largely an origination and destination airport. The majority of the airport’s traffic, 70-75%, either begins or ends at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, unlike airports like LAX, Denver or Chicago that have a large percentage of connecting passengers.