Sleet and freezing rain fell at the Nashville International Airport Wednesday during the overnight hours, and it did cause some issues early in the morning.
"With the ice coming down, and the sleet, we did have some cancellations, and some delays. But now we have all the runways open, operational, and most of our airlines are flying regular schedules," said Shannon Sumrall, spokeswoman for the airport.
Several flights had to be diverted from landing at BNA because of the icy weather.
Airline crews spent the morning de-icing their planes so they could try to keep passengers on schedule. By late morning there were still several delayed and canceled flights.
"Each individual airline has their own winter weather operations, so just because Southwest is flying doesn't mean another airline is. So make sure to check ahead with your airline, check on our website, flynashville.com, it has real-time flight information there as well," Sumrall said.
Marsha and Sammy Davis left plenty of time to catch an early morning flight to Jacksonville, and then a cruise to the Bahamas. But that flight was canceled, and the next flight was not scheduled for departure until 9:00 p.m. So the couple camped out in the airport.
"Instead of taking a chance of getting caught in traffic, or bad weather, we just decided to stay here and wait it out until 9 o'clock," Sammy Davis said.
Despite the long wait, Davis took the delay in stride.
"No use in getting mad. As long as we arrive, safely, and come back safely, I'll be happy and have fun in between times," Davis explained.
The West family traveled in from Columbia to catch an early afternoon flight to Las Vegas. Karla West watched the weather all night, and morning, hoping it would not delay her family's trip.
"We knew we had to be here early enough to get in, we were just worried about it, but we decided to chance it," West said.
Their flight was not delayed or canceled, so they left Nashville on schedule, for a much warmer part of the country.
All of this is a good first-run for travelers, as a much more powerful winter storm is predicted to hit the region Friday morning.
