GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay airport officials are expecting no problems as historically cold weather moves into the area.
Brown County has declared a weather emergency for Wednesday and most services and businesses across the county will be limited, but that’s not the case at Austin Straubel Airport.
“The fact is the airport, I would say, is an essential service for the county,” says Airport Director Marty Piette. “That’s why we intend to be open, of course, for air traffic.”
In fact, he says it’ll be close to a normal day for them.
“We’ll have some limited staff from an administrative standpoint, but other than that, from a maintenance and operations standpoint, we’re going to be here and ready to go,” says Piette.
He adds that it’s easy to forget, but planes are actually used to temperature like this and built to hold up in cold air.
“They’re used to operating in that temperature [because] when they’re up at 30,000 or 40,000 feet they are in that temperature anyways,” says Piette. “So, it doesn’t impact the aircraft.”
And they have technology at their disposal to quickly warm up any aircraft that has been sitting overnight in the cold temperatures.
“They have pre-conditioned air units that also attach to it,” he explains. “So it’ll pump it full of warm air and get everything heated up before they start putting passengers on.”
Nonetheless, the risk of general malfunction or breakdown is going to be present with historically cold weather.
“Of course when it gets cold equipment breaks, so we’ll still be here and ready to tend to that if it happens,” explains Piette.
For the employees, the goal will be to stay inside as much as possible.
“They won’t be outside unless they absolutely have to,” he says. “If it’s a critical operational item, like a sign or something on the runway or a jet bridge that breaks down.”
He adds that they were fortunate that Monday’s snowstorm produced lighter snow, which made it easier to clear off the runway.
“It was a real dry, light snow because of the cold temperatures so that cleaned up real nicely,” says Piette. “So the conditions out there are perfect.”
