Originally Posted by
readywhenyouare
How does Air Canada manage? How do they manage in MSP? If Delta can't handle a little snow and ice in Georgia then something is seriously wrong.
Here's some context:
In ATL, there are ~44 days each year where the temperature drops below freezing:
https://www.sercc.com/cgi-bin/sercc/cliMAIN.pl?ga0451
Keep in mind, this includes days where the daytime temp is well above freezing and just dips down overnight. There are maybe 2 days a year where the max temp is below freezing.
In MSP, there are ~152 days where the temp dips below freezing (and ~78 days where the temp never gets above freezing):
https://wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?mn5435
At MSP (and other cold weather airports), DL has invested in the crews and equipment for a lot of deicing. Whereas in ATL, I can see the reasoning why there aren't as many crews in. Plus the crews that are there don't get as much practice as in MSP (though DL will fly crews into ATL from DTW, SLC, and MSP if needed).
So sure, DL could pay a bunch of deicing crews to sit around in ATL and do nothing most days of the year, but then that would impact ticket prices...