This research work evaluates the impacts of thunderstorms to flight operations in Port-Harcourt International Airport. This study focused on the monthly and annual occurrences of thunderstorms, trend/pattern of thunderstorm and its influence to the number of flight diversions, delays and cancellations. In other to evaluate this impact, six years data on thunderstorm frequency and the number of flight diversions, delays and cancellations were obtained. The statistical analyses employed were the Simple and Multiple bar charts and Pearson’s product moment correlation. From the analysis, it was observed that thunderstorms occur mostly in the rainy season months (monsoon periods) with an increasing trend within the years due to the meridionial movement of the weather/ITD zones. The study revealed that thunderstorm accounted for 32% of flight cancellation with 218 occurrences, 0.2% of diversion with 291 occurrences and 24% of delays with 526 occurrences at the airport from 2008-2013. From the Analysis, thunderstorms have a greater influence on the number of flight cancellations and delays than on diversions with the correlation value of r=0.57, 0.49 and -0.04 respectively. The study concluded that thunderstorms occur in the study area during monsoon periods and it has more impact on delay and cancellations than on diversions.
Keywords: Cancellation, Delay, Diversion, Impacts, Monsoon, Thunderstorm
