MISSOULA — Western Montanans are no strangers to fog, and that can unfortunately cause some issues for travel.
At the Missoula airport the weekend before Christmas, there were at least five cancellations, three diversions and many flights delayed for anywhere from 12-to-24 hours, according to airport director Brian Ellestad.
The issues were caused by severe weekend fog.
United and Delta decided to delay flights rather than cancel, and Ellestad said most of the weekend passengers for those airlines arrived on Monday.
The Missoula Montana Airport has a fog seeding machine, which Ellestad said was used over the weekend and was able to prevent further cancellations or delays.
Ellestad says fog can be a difficult issue for travel, especially around the holidays, and that he encourages customers to be prepared and be patient.
“Fog’s one of the worst things that we hate. We'd much rather deal with a snowstorm than fog. At least snow we can remove but fog, you know, it's just as it comes in and goes out," he says. "Just have patience, and it's tough over the holidays. We totally understand, you know, I'm a traveling passenger as well, and you know you just gotta watch the weather and make sure you download the app so that you get rebooked as necessary.”
Ellestad says the National Weather Service told airport officials that the worst of the foggy weather is behind us and that this week’s holiday travel should go smoother.
