SEA Airport ground stop lifted: Thunderstorms in Seattle trigger flight delays
Ground stop at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Departures from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are delayed due to weather on Thursday, July 16.
SEATTLE - The FAA has lifted the ground stops for flights bound for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Thursday morning as severe thunderstorms move out of the area.
All operations at SEA Airport are now back to normal.
(FAA)
Thunderstorms trigger FAA ground stop, departure delays at Sea-Tac Airport
The backstory:
The ground stop went into effect at 9:45 a.m. PDT and is scheduled to remain in place until at least 11:15 a.m. PDT. According to the FAA, there is a medium probability—estimated between 30% and 60%—that the ground stop will be extended.
The grounding specifically restricts departures heading to Seattle from three regional air traffic control zones—Salt Lake Center (ZLC), Oakland Center (ZOA), and Seattle Center (ZSE)—as well as five Canadian airports: Edmonton (CYEG), Vancouver (CYVR), Calgary (CYYC), Victoria (CYYJ), and Kelowna (CYLW).
In addition to incoming flights being held on the ground, flights departing from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are experiencing average delays of 30 minutes, a number that federal officials state is currently increasing. The FAA attributed the departure delays to weather-related reroutes and mitigation restrictions.
The airport is currently operating at an arrival rate of 42 flights per hour. Sea-Tac is utilizing runways 16R and 16L for arrivals, and runways 16C and 16L for departures.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The Source: Information in this story comes from the Federal Aviation Administration.
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