The Christmas holiday season is proving to be the opposite of merry and bright for many Canadians.
Major cancellations continued at airports and on train lines in eastern Canada on Christmas Day, when most Canadians hope to spend time with family and friends. All VIA Rail trains between Toronto and Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa are cancelled today, VIA Rail stated.
It was much better than Saturday, but Christmas Day Sunday still saw more than 130 outgoing and incoming flights at Toronto Pearson, which means travel plans were disrupted or entirely cancelled for thousands and thousands of people. FlightAware reported 75 incoming flights were cancelled at Pearson, Canada’s busiest airport, which is roughly 14% of all scheduled arrivals. The website said 57 outgoing flights (11%) were cancelled.
Vancouver International had 41 incoming and outgoing flights cancelled, while Montreal had 30.
Flight Aware said 58 Air Canada flights (12%) were cancelled on Christmas Day, compared to 87 (19%) for Air Canada Jazz and 23 (19%) for Air Canada Rouge. The website said 32 WestJet flights (11%) were cancelled on Sunday, while 9 WestJet Encore flights were cancelled (5%). It listed only three Swoop cancellations and one from Porter Airlines.
Canadian Press reports “hundreds” of Canadians are still stranded in the Cancun, Mexico area after Sunwing cancelled an undetermined number of flights in the run-up to Christmas. Sunwing cited weather and operational issues and said it was trying to get planes to Mexico. But customers said they were given little information and were forced to sleep in hotel lobbies, or got shuttled from hotel to hotel in a bid to find a place to rest. Some families said they had elderly people or young children to worry about.
Trains weren’t much better in Eastern Canada. Passengers on a VIA Rail train heading from Ottawa to Toronto were stranded for some 18 hours on Christmas Eve after a tree fell on an engine car. VIA Rail said it has had to cancel all trains between Toronto and Ottawa and between Toronto and Montreal for today (Dec. 26.)
“Due to the ongoing impact of the CN train derailment which occurred on December 24 and led to train cancellations between Toronto and Ottawa and Toronto and Montreal on December 24 and 25, VIA Rail is forced to cancel again all trains which were scheduled on these routes on December 26,” VIA Rail said on its website. “This includes trains 41, 51, 45, 53, 47, 645, 55, 59, 50, 52, 40, 42, 44, 46, 54, 48, 51, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 669, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 668.”
The Toronto Star said full refunds are being offered to VIA Rail customers. Airlines say they’re offering flexible refund policies, but published reports suggest many customers are having trouble re-booking online and can’t get through to call centres.
