A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ground stop for more than four hours led to continued flight cancellations and delays at Canadian airports on Saturday.
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Air traffic disruption stemming from a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ground stop for more than four hours continued to ripple across Canadian airports on Saturday, with airlines issuing updates and travellers reporting long waits for information.
Toronto Pearson International Airport said, “A busy day of travel is underway,” and reported it had called in more staff to help manage the disruption.
In Edmonton, traveller Edward Langer, who is in New York with his 15-year-old daughter, said his Saturday flight home was postponed by about four days due to the U.S. freeze, leaving them facing missed school and work days as well as additional hotel costs.
Langer said he had spent hours on hold trying to reach Porter Airlines as of Saturday afternoon and described increased hotel prices, saying, “When you go on some of the travel sites to book hotels, (the price) is just doubling and tripling. It’s crazy.”
In the United States, the government said new technology being added to the air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment, causing intermittent communications and radar gaps, and the matter was under investigation. In Canada, Air Canada said it cancelled approximately 250 flights after the order, affecting about 27,000 passengers, adding in a statement that, “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,” while it said, “Returning to normal operations will take some time.”
Porter Airlines and WestJet said it would likely take the whole weekend for flights to return to normal schedules. Porter said it would refund customers who cannot accommodate rescheduled flights, while WestJet said its policy allowing flexible rescheduling had been activated.
In Montreal, Isabelle Rochefort said she was standing in line at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport to board her Air Canada flight to Cancun, Mexico, around 5 p.m. on Friday when she received notice the flight was cancelled. She said the situation was confusing because the aircraft had not yet landed in the United States, writing in Facebook messages that “We didn’t know what to do, of course,” and that “The Air Canada staff had no information on what was next except that we had to wait for news.”
Rochefort said she was able to retrieve her bag after leaving the line and arrange for someone to drive her home to Sorel-Tracy, more than an hour and a half away. She said she has since been rebooked on a new flight leaving Sunday, but will need to pay again to reach the airport, adding that the remaining question is whether compensation will be possible: “That remains to be seen.”
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