Winter is coming, and American Airlines is bracing itself for the freeze by training to prepare for deicing season.
Deicing season officially started on October 1, 2024, in the Northern Hemisphere and lasts generally until the beginning of April of the following year.
According to American Airlines, every minute counts when it comes to getting an aircraft out on time during this season, so the airline’s specially trained deicing teams aim to free aircraft of snow, ice, or frost within an average of nine minutes to ensure on-time departures.
The airline conducts deicing training yearly to ensure thousands of team members have the skills to carry out this important work thoroughly and safely.
“Just as a car must defrost before heading out on the roads, an aircraft needs to deice before taking to the skies,” American Airlines said in a statement.
Just like other carriers, American Airlines adheres to deicing guidelines published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada (TC), and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
New deicing procedures, such as electronic spray records and tracking tools introduced in 2023, are making the process more efficient. American said that its team at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) can deice eight narrowbody aircraft at once — doubling capacity from 2023 at the central deicing facility.
“This season, we’re new and improved. But our number one goal for the deicing team is the same: safety of our passengers and team,” Gene Herrick, American’s Manager of Deicing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) said in a statement.
The airline said that the length of time it takes to deice an aircraft depends on how much frost, snow, or ice has accumulated.
“It can take anywhere from 60 to a few hundred gallons of deicing fluid per aircraft. Each aircraft is sprayed either at its gate or at a centralized deicing pad, depending on the airport,” American said.