New Instruments Should Ease Airport Delays

Travelers through the municipal airport should experience fewer delays, if a new system is installed to allow safer foul-weather landings.

“Anytime it snows, we’re down to less than one mile of visibility, and then we’re essentially a one-runway airport,” airport director John Anderson told the Airport Commission on Thursday. “It results in diversions.”

The commission agreed to pursue a $1 million instrument landing system for planes coming from the east. The west runway has one, but planes cannot land safely with a tail wind of more than 10 mph.

So the airport is sometimes shut down in foggy weather when wind is coming out of the west.