Flying in the snow

I had the recent misfortune to fly out during a snow storm. The interesting thing is that the storm was not actually that bad by New England standards. It was certainly snowing, but there was a minimal accumulation. Flights were being cancelled, but mine wasn’t.

Here is where it gets weird. We board the plane at the gate and waited 2 hours and 30 minutes. The frustration was that the delay was not due to air traffic control issues, but rather due to waiting for de-icing. That is right, we waited all that time for the de-icing crew to arrive to allow us to fly out. In fact, according to the captain there were only 5 airplanes ahead of us for de-icing.

So here is the question, how could we wait 2:30 for de-icing? Now, the airline will hide behind bad weather, but come on, it is not like snow is uncommon. Wouldn’t you think that you would have multiple de-icing crews on call in preparation for the storm? Particularly since the storm was clearly forecasted. Also with de-icing taking about 15 minutes, how could we wait for 2:30 hours for 5 planes? The whole situation seemed like a case of poor management, but of course, the airline will not take responsibility because they blame the weather.

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