Hailstorm forces airline to inspect 100 planes at major hub
Hundreds of flights were cancelled after the thunderstorm on Friday evening
A severe thunderstorm hit the world’s busiest passenger airport on Friday evening, forcing cancellations that rippled into the start of the weekend.
Strong winds and hail affected Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, located about a dozen kilometres south of the city’s downtown core.
DON’T MISS: Six annoying ways weather forces airlines to cancel your flight
The U.S. National Weather Service warned that the storm was capable of producing 100 km/h wind gusts and quarter size hail between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. on Friday evening.
“Delta technicians worked throughout the night to complete required hail inspections on about 100 aircraft and nearly all are returning to service Saturday,” Delta Air Lines said in an email to The Weather Network on Saturday.
Additionally, the airline diverted about 90 flights bound for Atlanta to nearby airports as a result of the severe weather. “The weather impacts have resulted in hundreds of system cancelations for Saturday,” a Delta spokesperson added.
More than 108,000,000 passengers filtered through Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 2024, securing its spot as the world’s busiest passenger airport—a title it’s held almost continuously since the turn of the century. Delta Air Lines and its regional partners will account for more than 900 daily departures alone this summer, the airline’s spokesperson said.
Header image courtesy of Unsplash.