Potential nor'easter may disrupt flights at Boston's Logan Airport: "Airlines will be watching the forecast"

Travelers coming in and out of Logan International Airport in Boston this weekend should beware of possible delays and flight cancellations due to a nor'easter in the weather forecast. 

The potential nor'easter threatens to bring strong winds and heavy rain to the coast of Massachusetts over the next seven days. 

Airline pilot Patrick Smith, who runs a blog called "Ask the Pilot," told WBZ-TV that the high winds could lead to significant disruptions in air traffic at Logan. 

"If the winds are such that the runways don't line up in the optimum direction to take advantage of the winds, sometimes takeoff or landing can be prohibited outright," he said. 

Though Logan has runways in different directions to prevent complete closure, some runways in non-optimal positions relative to the wind may be closed once the nor'easter hits. 

But Smith says the airport is used to operating with a reduced runway configuration. 

"Generally, you're not going to be using more than two runways at a time anyway, and the four-left, four-right configuration is a common one in Boston, all the time," he said. 

The most likely scenario in which flights would be grounded is if winds exceed 40 mph, which is the general crosswind limit for aircrafts, according to Smith. 

WBZ-TV's NEXT Weather team predicts that this weekend's potential nor'easter may bring seven straight days of gusty winds, peaking at 55 mph in the Boston area over the weekend. 

The prolonged wind may cause additional disruptions at Logan, though Smith said it's too early to tell if anything will be out of the ordinary. 

"It really depends on how strong the winds are and what directions exactly they're coming from, and there's not a way to really predict that," he said. 

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the storm, Smith said that travelers should check in with their airline frequently to make sure their flight hasn't been canceled in advance. 

"Airlines will be watching the forecast to get an idea of just how strong the winds might be, how bad the weather will be, and go from there," Smith said. "One thing airlines do a lot nowadays is they will preemptively cancel flights, just to keep the volume down."