Airlines Say Weather, Construction Are To Blame

Two planes were delayed in New York City on their way to Minneapolis, which resulted in hundreds of people sitting on airliners for up to five and a half hours Friday.

Television station KARE reports that a Sun Country flight was the victim of that five and a half hour delay in New York. Passenger John Nides told the station he paid $15 to check a bag on the flight, but when the crew started baking cookies in the galley, they were only distributed to the passengers in first class.  "So have you ever been in a kitchen when they're baking chocolate chip cookies and you haven't eaten for four or five hours," he said in an interview.

A Delta flight to Minneapolis was also delayed in New York for 4 hours Friday. Those passengers were finally allowed to deplane, and told to come back to the airport for a flight Saturday morning. Saturday saw another delay. KARE reports that once back on the plane, one of the passengers shot a video of a Delta employee saying ""Again I do apologize. I'm hoping the water trucks can be here in a couple minutes. We can not go without any water in the lavatories."

Both airlines said runway construction in Minneapolis was the primary reason for the delays. One of MSP's primary runways will be closed through October for resurfacing of the middle 3.900 feet of pavement. Minneapolis Metropolitan Airports Commission Spokesman Pat Hogan told the station  "because of the way the runways are configured. You can't have planes coming in and landing on two of the remaining three runways at the same time because they'd be crossing paths."

Sun Country offered passengers a refund for the flight. As a result of the delay, the airline announced Sunday in a news release that it is implementing a new policy modeled on legislation supported by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would limit runway taxi time. The company has decided to establish a maximum taxi time limit of four hours. After such time, the Sun County Airlines flight will return to the gate area to disembark its passengers.

Stan Gadek, CEO of Sun County Airlines said, “The flight delay on Friday was unacceptable from the customers perspective as well as the airline. By establishing a four hour deadline for a return to gate decision we are eliminating long taxi times due to ongoing delays for ATC, weather and airport congestion.”

Stan Gadek went onto say, “The Senate’s initiative is on the mark and we thank Senator Klobuchar for her leadership and support on this issue. We are pleased to be the first airline to voluntarily implement a policy based upon key aspects of this legislation.”

FMI: www.msairport.com, www.suncountry.com