The ripple effects of a four-hour freeze on U.S. air traffic continued across Canadian airports on Saturday, as airlines issued flight notices and travellers spent hours tethered to their phones waiting for updates.
Airports from Vancouver to Halifax posted on social media that they were facing delays, and the one in Toronto said it even called in more staff to help out.
“A busy day of travel is underway,” said Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Traveller Edward Langer, who is in New York with his 15-year-old daughter, said his Saturday flight back home to Edmonton was postponed by about four days due to the freeze.
He said he and his daughter are facing several missed days of school and work, as well as thousands of dollars in extra hotel costs.
He had not been able to reach Porter Airlines as of Saturday afternoon despite spending hours on hold.
“When you go on some of the travel sites to book hotels, (the price) is just doubling and tripling,” he said.
“It’s crazy.”
Global travel chaos began after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued a so-called ground stop order on Friday that brought air traffic in that country to a halt for more than four hours.
The U.S. government said new technology being added to the nation’s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment and caused intermittent communications and radar gaps. The matter was under investigation.
Air Canada said Saturday it cancelled approximately 250 flights after the order, which affected some 27,000 passengers.
“This was a significant disruption, and its effects have carried over into today, with additional cancellations as aircraft and crews are out of position across our network,” said Yasmine Mehdi, an Air Canada spokesperson.
“Returning to normal operations will take some time.”
Porter Airlines and WestJet said it would likely take the whole weekend for its flights to return to normal schedules.
Porter said it would refund its customers who can’t accommodate rescheduled flights while Calgary-based WestJet said its policy allowing flexible rescheduling was activated.
Isabelle Rochefort said she had been standing in line at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport to board her Air Canada flight to Cancun, Mexico, around 5 p.m. Friday when she received word that it was cancelled.
She said the situation was initially confusing because her plane wasn’t touching down in the United States.
“We didn’t know what to do, of course,” she said in a series of Facebook messages.
“The Air Canada staff had no information on what was next except that we had to wait for news.”
She was able to retrieve her bag after leaving the line and call someone to drive her home to Sorel-Tracy, more than an hour-and-a-half away.
She’s since been rebooked on a new flight leaving Sunday, though she’ll have to pay for yet another expensive ride to the airport.
Rochefort believes that both the airport and airline are managing as best as they can.
“The real question now is, will it be possible to be compensated?” she asked.
“That remains to be seen.”
By Morgan Lowrie in Montreal, Sarah Smellie in St. John’s, and Fakiha Baig in Edmonton, with files from The Associated Press
