Flights Coming Into Metro Delayed By Winds

DETROIT (WWJ) - The high winds are causing some delays for flights coming into Detroit Metro Airport.  Spokesman Mike Conway says flights coming into the airport are delayed by about 30 minutes.

Conway tells WWJ, it's not about the strength of the winds but the direction.

Conway says flights going to San Francisco, Newark, and La Guardia are also delayed, because of the weather in those cities.

In other words, they are holding aircraft in their origination cities averaging about 31 minutes before they launch them toward Detroit. Just because our capacity is down a little bit.

The operation is completely safe, and that's the number priority for the FAA, and the airport and everybody else.

"The FAA air traffic control brings in arrivals on our two crosswind runways. The airport operates much more efficiently when the operations are on the four parallel runways," says Conway.

"But when you have conditions like this, and it happens frequently in the spring and fall, when you get strong winds out of the west, then air traffic control will bring arrivals out on the crosswinds," Conway says.

Click on here for flight information at Detroit Metro Airport.

Check out our weather page for more on the gusty winds hitting metro Detroit.