Flights at Pellston Regional Airport remain disrupted because of flooded runways

A public airport in Northern Michigan remains closed because of flooding, and Thursday is the earliest possible date for flights. 

Pellston Regional Airport on U.S. 31 in the Emmet County community of Pellston canceled its regular daily flight schedule on April 11 because water covered part of the runway area. Pellston normally provides daily Delta Air Lines flights to Detroit Metro Airport and seasonal United Express Service flights to Chicago O'Hare International Airport. 

Helicopters can land and take off if needed. 

But the two runways at PLN continued on Sunday to be unusable for fixed-wing aircraft, airport officials said, and won't be until at least later this week. 

"We have extended our timeline for re-evaluation to Thursday morning, anticipating that the sunshine and warmer weather in our forecast will help with eliminating the water hazards enough to allow normal operations to resume soon," the airport said. "We continue to communicate with the airlines, tenants and our recurring cargo flight operators to keep them advised of our situation as well." 

Snow melt from a mid-March winter storm, aggravated by recent rains, caused flooding problems throughout Northern Michigan. One of the biggest areas of concern has been high water that has risen to just a few inches away from the top of the Cheboygan Lock and Dam in Cheboygan County, which is east of Emmet County.

The above video originally aired on April 17, 2026.