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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A major snowstorm in southern British Columbia is having “an uprecedented impact” on flights at Vancouver International Airport, officials said today. “The winter storm and severe snowfall has had an unprecedented impact on flights and operations at YVR, with mass cancellations. Travel continues to be significantly impacted this morning & we anticipate cancellations to continue through the day and the week ahead,” airport officials said on their @flyyvr Twitter feed. FlightAware.com reports 146 cancelled flights as of 1:45 p.m. Pacific Standard Time today, or roughly 33% of all daily flights. “We recognize the affect these cancellations have on our community. Read more
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
Airline staffing issues and weather problems continue to bedevil would-be travellers in Canada and the U.S. New York City and Boston have been hardest hit today. As of 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, January 7, the website flightaware.com reports 328 cancellations for Canadian airlines for the day. It also said nearly one-half of all flights for snowy Halifax, Nova Scotia have been cancelled today. According to the site, Air Canada Jazz alone has cancelled 150 flights, which represents 30% of their total for the day. WestJet Encore has cancelled 59 flights, or 31%, the site said. For Air Canada, Read more
