{"id":727682,"date":"2026-06-10T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727682\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:00:11","slug":"severe-weather-sends-winnipeg-bound-flights-to-southport-portageonline-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/727682\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather sends Winnipeg-bound flights to Southport – PortageOnline.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

A severe storm system moving through southern Manitoba forced multiple aircraft bound for Winnipeg to divert to Southport Aerospace Centre<\/a>, where about 150 passengers and crew were temporarily accommodated before continuing their journeys once conditions improved.<\/p>\n

Nathan Peto, chief executive officer of Southport Aerospace Centre, says the weather system developed quickly and disrupted normal flight operations across the region.<\/p>\n

He notes most flights were coming from northern routes.<\/p>\n

Related stories:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up having about 10 flights land at Southport and our airport operations specialist, Audrey Wilson, coordinated on-site,\u201d Peto continues. \u201cMost of them were Perimeter Aviation flights from northern Manitoba and northern Ontario that got diverted to Southport.”<\/p>\n

Peto says the number of passengers involved was manageable, but still required a coordinated response from staff and partners on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily, not too many passengers,\u201d Peto remarks. \u201cI think we had about 150 passengers and crew land, and they had to wait out the storm.”<\/p>\n

On-site response and care<\/p>\n

Once on the ground, passengers were provided with support while they waited for the weather to clear, with multiple local service partners stepping in to assist airport staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did our best to accommodate them on site,\u201d Peto says.<\/p>\n

He adds a number of organizations helped ensure passengers were fed and comfortable during the delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial thanks to\u00a0KF Aerospace, Allied Wings, CBO and Brown Fine Food Services,\u201d Peto mentions. \u201cWe got them time to rest, got them fed. Kept them comfortable and then when they were able to leave again after the storm system, we got them back on their way.”<\/p>\n

\"planes\"The runway at Southport had some extra visitors Tuesday evening, the same runway people will be eating on for table for 600 Friday night.\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b
\nPrepared for rare events<\/p>\n

Peto says while diversions of this scale do not happen frequently, Southport maintains the capability to respond when aircraft cannot land at their intended destination due to weather or other disruptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked really well, thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of different staff and different parts of the team that help run Southport,\u201d Peto says. \u201cAs an airport, you’re responsible for helping the people when they are unable to land in the locations they intend to.”<\/p>\n

Related stories:<\/p>\n

He says the facility is prepared for a range of emergency and weather-related situations, even if they only occur occasionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a responsibility to provide safe harbour to flights that can’t make their final destinations,\u201d Peto adds. \u201cIt’s happened a couple of times over the last five years, but you always have to be ready, whether it be winter systems or strange summer storms like we had last night, to provide those services.”<\/p>\n

Peto adds that aircraft also require refuelling and logistical support before they can return to service once conditions improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A severe storm system moving through southern Manitoba forced multiple aircraft bound for Winnipeg to divert to Southport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-727682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}