At least 18 airliners were grounded by damage caused by a hailstorm that hit Calgary International Airport last week, and the impact will be felt for weeks. Golf ball-sized hail pelted the airport on the evening of Aug. 5 and also extensively damaged the terminal. WestJet, which is based at Calgary, said 16 planes were knocked off the schedule by the intense cell. That’s about 10% of its fleet. Edmonton-based Flair Airlines lost use of two of its Boeing 737s to the storm. It has about 20 aircraft.
It could have been worse for WestJet. It had 22 planes on the ramp and staff had about 30 minutes of warning before the storm hit. They managed to get four planes under cover before the deluge. The loss of aircraft forced more than 300 cancellations in the following days and repairs are not yet complete. The planes were dimpled by the hail and repairs will take some time. The airline is using electronic mapping to identify each dimple.
