It seems too cruel to be true. Canadians and Americans this fall finally began travelling again after a two-year pandemic. And now, just as the holiday season arrives, North America is faced with massive weather issues. Fresh off an “unprecedented” number of flight cancellations in British Columbia, Canadian airlines and passengers can now brace for a major storm in Ontario and Quebec. Air Canada has issued snow advisories for Friday for Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto Pearson, Canada’s busiest airport. The forecast for southern Ontario calls for rain on Thursday night, with a “flash freeze” coming behind it on Friday that Read more
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Toronto Pearson Airport officials say they’ve added extra crews for the coming snow storm, but they warn that some delays and cancellations could still occur. “Safety is always our top priority for both passengers and our staff working in this weather, and we’ve been preparing for this latest snowfall since Monday,” Pearson/GTAA spokesperson Tori Gass said in an email this morning. “We’re monitoring the forecasts very closely and extra crews have been brought in to help with snow clearing. “We’re also working closely with our airline partners to help ensure there is as little impact to flights as possible. Saying Read more
A major winter storm and the biggest snowfall in some time is wreaking havoc with air travel in Eastern Canada and the Northeast United States today. Toronto Pearson stats show that, as of 5 p.m. Eastern Time, 75.98% of the 333 scheduled departures had been cancelled, while 72.83% of 346 arrivals were cancelled. Toronto was hit with nearly two feet of snow Sunday night and into Monday afternoon, and heavy winds were making things that much tougher Monday afternoon. FlightAware.com was showing that 48% of flights were cancelled at Ottawa’s international airport as of 5 p.m., while Montreal-Trudeau was at Read more
The U.S. has been plagued by holiday cancellations, but Canada’s two largest airlines say things are much smoother north of the border. Multiple reports out of the United States this weekend point to major cancellation issues, blamed on both staffing shortages and weather issues. The website flightaware.com, which tracks planes around the world, reported 690 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S. on Christmas Eve, followed by 996 on Christmas Day. As of 1 p.m. Eastern Time today, the site was reporting 774 cancellations for flights within or into/out of the U.S. Delta was looking at 131 cancellations Read more
This is from a trip I took to London in the winter of 2009, partly to show how cheap it can be in the off-season… LONDON – Last time I was here it was summer and, oh, about 35 degrees Celsius. Today, when my Air Canada flight touched down after some really heavy turbulence (think monster drops that had even the flight attendants gasping for air) it was 2 degrees. With several inches of snow on the ground. I’m normally not one to go for the cold, but this town is far, far better in the snow than in the Read more
