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The harsh weather conditions this winter has caused many airports to close down flight operations, not to mention leaving many travelers stranded or having to cancel plans. When it comes to fighting these conditions, airports have to keep up with their equipment to keep flights operating.

All airports use different equipment and plans to keep them from closing down their runways. "At the first snowflake we’ll send out a whole fleet of broom trucks to immediately begin brushing the pavement," says Buffalo airfield superintendent Tom Dames. "When snow piles up, we also have monster truck snow blowers."

At Boston Logan International Airport, they use 11 Vammas machines, each a giant plow, sweeper and blower rolled-into-one, can clear a 10,000-foot runway in less than 15 minutes, airport officials say.

In addition to having the right equipment, Airfield Maintenance manager Dan Frisby says it’s important that airports maintain their equipment and not skimp on the cost of crews and supplies. "Some airports try and hold back on the chemicals. And it just bites you. You’ve got to go into attack mode when a storm starts and use the chemicals as they were designed," Frisby says.

In order to keep the runways open, airports need to make it their priority to invest in the right machinery to get the job done. This is not something that takes science to fix, but definitely a good amount of investing in machinery and training with no short cuts.