Booking a flight?
Look for low fares and cool runways.

parked aircraftFlights were cancelled in Phoenix recently. It was 120 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems some jets aren’t allowed to operate at that temperature; the hotter, thinner air can’t lift them. To get down to a safe takeoff weight, others planes have to offload baggage and passengers. You just hope there are seats on the next flight.

The problem is predicted to worsen, as average temperatures climb across the country in coming decades. The unseen economic costs include slowly dropping aircraft capacities and rising runway maintenance costs.

How do you keep from being grounded by heat? Try not to book your summer connections through America’s fastest warming cities. Or schedule connections for early morning when it’s cooler, not mid-afternoon. And of course you could always fly on a private jet. Seems that, for some reason, they’re far less likely to be delayed by a heat wave.