With test flights stalled over the Atlantic we have learned a few new details about why it is not moving at this time: adjustments to the design of the sleigh, coupled by a delay in building against that updated design has slowed down the tests.
“There are a couple of things going on right now that we’ve told you about,” Elf Buck Sanchez, Operations Director at North Pole Flight Command said. “We have reindeer that need to get some rest, we have a new sleigh design update that needs a build out, we need certain kinds of weather to fly in — all of these things have compounded the slow down in test flights. This is actually kind of normal for this time of the year.”
The North Pole Navy is anchored in the mid-Atlantic to help support test flight operations. They too say what is happening is normal. “It’s a weird thing to think of elves on a ship,” said Captain Henry Despain, of the Merry Wanderer, a sleigh craft carrier that is part of the North Pole Navy. “But those test pilots are here, as are some of the reindeer, and we’re taking good care of them.”
There are four total ships working to support test flight operations over the Atlantic. Two other ships are awaiting future activity in the South Pacific. No word yet and when flight operations might shift to that part of the world.
The test flights of Santa’s sleigh are headed over North America over the next several days. Engineers are transitioning the sleigh to the skies over the waters of the active Atlantic hurricane season. 
