HOLIDAY TRAVEL: ‘Tis the season for Medford airport fog delays

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, December 21, 2023

Fog settled in at the Medford airport late Wednesday and early Thursday, delaying flights by several hours during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

For Arelene Tayloe of Ashland, that meant her expected arrival time in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to see her son was delayed until after 9 p.m. Thursday, instead of 2 p.m. that day.

“I came out here at 4 in the morning,” Tayloe said, sitting at a cafe table in the airport terminal at about 10:30 a.m., her luggage beside her.

She said she didn’t learn about the delay until a shuttle driver told her.

“Not too cool,” she said. “I wasn’t going to go back. It cost me $50 to get here. So I had a meal and I’m reading my novel about Santa Fe.”

She tried to look at the bright side.

“I’m starting to think of the positives,” she said. “Always the positives. I’ll get to see my son. I love Santa Fe, too.”

“They’ve got good food. They’ve got good art. The music, too.”

Tayloe, who plays violin for the Rogue Valley Symphony and has played for the Santa Fe Opera, expects to spend Christmas Eve strolling with her son along Canyon Road in Santa Fe, past art galleries, twinkling lights and carolers.

“Just a stroll,” she said, adding that it’ll probably snow.

Her son, Richard, of Brooklyn, New York, also had his flight from the East Coast delayed Thursday.

By about 10 a.m., the fog had lifted noticeably at the Medford airport, where a jet finally landed at 10:45 a.m., the first of the day. A few tables away in the cafe, Tim Miller of Honolulu sat down with his wife for a cup of coffee, eggs and bacon.

They had arrived at the airport at 4:30 a.m. and were delayed until the early afternoon, about when they should have been arriving in Phoenix to meet their son and drive up to stay at Grand Canyon National Park. Instead, they didn’t expect to get to Phoenix until about 10 p.m. Thursday, delaying their trip to the canyon by a day.

After a few nights at the canyon, the Millers expect to fly to Seattle to spend Christmas with their son, a Seattle resident, before flying home, where the temperature was in the 70s this week. As they spoke, their son was already in Phoenix, having flown in the day before.

“Bucket list,” Miller said, explaining the trip to see the canyon.

Unlike Tayloe, the Millers received a text message telling them about a flight delay of a few hours, but they came to the airport anyway. Later, their departure time was delayed again, until the early afternoon.

They had come to Medford on Monday to see his mother, Bonnie Pieper, who lives at Rogue Valley Manor. She moved to the city from Northern California maybe 12 or 15 years ago.

“She’s doing good,” Miller said. “She’s very happy where she’s at.”

Thursday and Friday were expected to be the two busiest travel days this week at the airport and among the busiest travel days of the year, according to Amber Judd, airport director.

Judd expects about the same number of travelers this holiday season as last at the airport, even though the number of travelers last Thanksgiving was “off the charts,” with a 12% increase from the previous Thanksgiving.

About five inbound flights were canceled Wednesday evening when fog formed about 9 p.m., she said.

“Anything that didn’t come in last night didn’t go out this morning,” she said. “Those pushed everything back.”

The airport no longer cloud-seeds above the airport to dissipate fog. Previously, it used a helium balloon tethered to a truck to disperse dry ice to break down freezing fog.

“We haven’t done seeding in years,” Judd said. “It wasn’t effective.”

“Conditions have to be just right,” she said. “We’re typically too warm.”

She suggested that people might want to consider flights in the afternoon, when fog is less likely, although meeting up with connecting flights might be more difficult at that time.

Besides fog in Medford, snow at other airports can disrupt travel this time of year.

“Snow back East can affect us,” she said. “Winter travel has its challenges, but it’s also when people want to go.”

Judd has a daughter due to fly in Saturday, when more morning fog is predicted in Medford, according to the National Weather Service.

“The rest of them are here,” she said, referring to her other children. “I hope she makes it.”