Winter Weather Affects Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport

Snow and ice blasted parts of the southeast over the weekend. While the Birmingham metropolitan area came out relatively unscathed, the winter weather caused some travel issues at airports across the region.

Dozens of flights into and out of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport were delayed or canceled Monday. Many of them were scheduled to or from Atlanta or the northeast region.

“Just got notified they’re delayed by at least an hour, so not too bad, but that’s just usually where it starts,” Talia Deaton said. “So I’m hoping it’s not like a domino effect, and then they’ll cancel.”

Deaton has a work conference in northern Kentucky scheduled to start Monday night, but the weekend’s winter weather across the southeast put a big hiccup in her plans.

“Having to travel from here to Atlanta, Atlanta to Cincinnati, but Birmingham is fine, it’s just getting there,” Deaton said. “And getting from the airport to the hotel is a little nerve-wracking with the snow and the ice.”

Donna Blackman faced similar flight delay struggles.

“Well, I was supposed to be on a 10 o’clock flight heading home to Charlotte,” Blackman said. “Been in Alabama now for two and a half weeks for work, so I was looking forward to going home at 10, and I got a notification, ‘flight’s cancelled.’ I was like, ‘ugh.’”

Blackman was rescheduled for a 1 p.m. flight to Charlotte on Monday and kept her fingers crossed there wouldn’t be any other issues.

“I’ve got to get home somehow,” Blackman said. “So if this gets cancelled, I hope it doesn’t, I’ll just have to wait for the next one. But I’m hoping it’s not, and I’m keeping positive.”

Some people, like Ian Clemmett, built extra time into their travel schedule on the off chance that weather caused problems.

“I do this every week, so I build in cushions,” Clemmett said. “Could be worse.”

Clemmett isn’t the only traveler who took weather-based travel precautions.

“Last week, I think Wednesday or Thursday, with all of the predictions of heavy snow and weather, I did change from Sunday, yesterday, to today,” said Gary Kortz. “I’m glad I did because all of the flights yesterday got canceled.”

Kortz made a weekend trip from Dayton, Ohio, to Alabama for his granddaughter’s fifth birthday but made sure he was prepared for the worst with weather.

“All the ice that we’re supposed to get in Atlanta, and that’s where my flight goes to today, so it looks like everything’s OK,” Kortz said. “But I don’t know. We’ll see. Brought my laptop, so I can work from anywhere. My sister lives in Atlanta, so if I get stuck there overnight, I’ll just call her and work from her house tomorrow.”

You can find up-to-date information about departing and arriving flights at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport at the link here.