Secondary runway at St. John's airport to open fully Wednesday

Some of the construction that recently caused chaos at St. John's International Airport will wrap up Wednesday morning, doubtless to the relief of travellers whose schedules have been thrown awry by cancellations. 

Schedules have been disrupted frequently in the last two weeks because the airport cannot often accommodate flights when there is low visibility. 

Before beginning construction, researchers looked through 30 years of weather data to determine the optimal time to do construction. However, they weren't expecting this summer's poor weather.

"Like everybody, we were hoping Mother Nature would cut us a break," said Glenn Mahon, the airport's vice president of operations.

 "Unfortunately, from a weather perspective we've been dealt a very difficult card as this has been the worst July in 20 years."

The primary runway has been closed, and until now the secondary runway has been shorter than its normal length. 

The St. John's International Airport Authority said the secondary runway will reopen Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., at its full length of 7,000 feet. Work until now had been focused on the intersection between the primary and secondary runways.

The main runway, which shut down on June 1, will remain closed for construction until the end of September.

Since the primary runway closed, 216 flights have been delayed or cancelled. Still, the airport authority said 95 per cent of all flights have operated on schedule.

The airport has been dealing with cancellations and closures that the current round of upgrades are designed to prevent. New equipment is expected to allow more flights to land safely in foggy weather. 

 "The airport authority recognizes the disruption to passengers. We feel their pain, we appreciate where they're coming from," said Mahon.

"This speaks to why we're doing what we're doing. We want to implement a long-term sustainable solution to this problem so that we see these passengers not impacted in the future."

The upgrades are set to finish this fall.

Meanwhile, red was the colour of the day again Tuesday, as the airport grappled with another day of weather-related delays and cancellations. Hundreds of travellers waited in St. John's for updates on flights that were diverted to Gander and Deer Lake.

Terry Skanes had to drive to Gander to pick up somebody whose plane couldn't land in St. John's.

"A lot of people are upset," he said. "But that's it, the weather pays a toll on everything."

Poor weather conditions including rain and fog have been plaguing the airport over the last few weeks.

Flights arriving from and departing to Calgary, Toronto, Halifax, Montreal and Happy Valley-Goose Bay were all affected by the cancellations.

Airport officials have been advising passengers to check the website for flight status.