Does the weather forecast affect flights?
The weather forecast is a key element of the pilot’s pre-flight checks and flight crew will continually update their weather information throughout a flight. There are lots of types of weather to consider.
Fog, snow, ice and crosswind mean that air traffic controllers have to increase the gap between planes that are landing, reducing the number of aircraft that an airport can manage. The same weather can make it slower and more difficult for the planes to taxi between runway and terminal building. As many commercial flights are cruising more than five miles above the ground, they can be affected by different weather than we are experiencing on the ground. Safety is always the first consideration for the aviation industry. An aircraft that’s stood overnight in freezing weather will need de-icing before its first flight in the morning. That’s a fairly big task.
(Adapted from metoffice.gov.uk).
According to the text, we can infer that ___________________.