Arizona Heat Forces Airline To Cancel Flights

If you are planning on traveling in or out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport over the next few days on American Airlines, you might want to double check the flight is still on. Dozens of flights have been canceled for Tuesday.

The reason? Excessive heat.

The airline — whose flights in and out Sky Harbor are operated by Mesa and SkyWest airlines — has canceled at least 20 flights for Tuesday. (Subscribe to local news alerts on Patch).

They saw the forecast on Monday and started canceling flights.

Flights to and from Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and Tucson are among those affected.

The airlines use CRJ regional aircraft made by Bombadier. The top temperature for those planes to operate is 118 degrees.

The problem is that when the heat reaches that level, there is literally less air on the ground making it harder for some planes to get the thrust they need to take off.

This only affects smaller, regional planes like the CRJ700 made by Bombadier that regional airlines use. Larger planes are not affected.

The airline says that the only likely window for those planes to fly in and out of Sky Harbor will be between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

It's expected to be like this through Wednesday.

Passengers who want to rebook can call 800-433-7300.

Photo via Bombadier