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Alot of airports used to make it to cut costs. Some also had special drain systems for reclaiming the fluid. Others had a subcontractor company come and suck it up as you sprayed the planes.

There was also type 1 and type 2: Type 1 was the watery antifreeze like stuff, type 2 was jelly-like meant to spray on the plane as it was waiting to take off to keep the ice from reforming. Type 2 was much more expensive than type 1 and the first thing you learn is to not use type 2 unless told to.

There was also IR tents at some of the NYC area airports but they only served planes smaller than a 737. I think the port authority removed them about 10 years ago.




I fly out of JFK pretty regularly in regional jets and the IR tents are still there - though I’ve never been on a plane there that got anything other than conventional deicing. Unsure if they’re actually active.


Can’t find any info on the IR deicers getting decommissioned. Newark’s could handle a 757 and JFK’s could handle a 787 and 747.




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