The most wonderful time of the year has turned into the nightmare before New Year’s for many American and Canadian travelers. Last week it was Canada’s turn to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous travel. A massive snowstorm shut down airports in Vancouver and southern British Columbia a few days prior to Christmas, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, including many from Canada’s WestJet Airlines. A so-called “bomb cyclone” or “weather bomb” then swept across the United States and Eastern Canada, causing massive cancellations at airports in Seattle, Detroit, Buffalo and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Toronto Pearson, Canada’s Read more
flight cancellations
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 Read more
The worst appears to be over for southern Ontario, but frigid temperatures and strong winds are still limiting travel for many. Roads are treacherous, and VIA Rail also is having trouble with trains in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor. CP24 reports passengers on a train heading from Ottawa to Toronto have been stuck on board a stalled train car for 17 hours. Airports appear to be recovering in Ontario and Quebec as the snow dissipates. “The last several days have been very challenging for the airlines and they’ve been proactively cancelling and delaying flights,” said Tori Gass, a spokesperson for Toronto Read more
An historic “weather bomb” is making a mockery of airline schedules and ruining holiday plans for travelers across North America. With snow starting to build in some cities and fierce winds bringing record-low temperatures to many parts of the U.S., FlightAware reports 4,700 U.S. flight cancellations as of 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The website showed 35% of all outbound flights have been cancelled at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, while Detroit had a 43% cancellation rate and Seattle 46%. Chicago O’Hare was showing 23% of flights cancelled. Cleveland and Buffalo were much worse. Cleveland was showing a 70% cancellation rate, while Read more
The holiday travel season is proving to be a disaster for many. WestJet is cancelling hundreds of flights in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec due to major winter storms that are wreaking havoc with holiday travel. Air Canada today said it pre-cancelled an undetermined number of flights in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal due to the impending storm, while Porter Airlines said “many” Ontario-based flights will likely be cancelled starting this afternoon. Sunwing says it has had to cancel many southbound flights from Western Canada through until Christmas. Airlines say they’re doing their best to cope with what some weather experts Read more
