Winter storms cause cancellations, delays for hundreds of travellers at Maritime airports

Hundreds of travellers have been left stranded at Maritime airports in the last week.

Two storm systems swept across the Maritime provinces over the last week, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded or facing significant delays and cancellations at the region’s two major airports.

“So we’ve seen a lot of Sunwing delays due to weather. So everything we’ve seen is really weather related, whether it’s WestJet with Calgary, Air Canada coming in from Toronto, Montreal, those have all been delayed or cancelled,” said Lauren Guitard, a spokesperson for the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport.

“When that happens, sometimes it’s made up to the next day. So for Sunwing travellers, they may have lost a day of vacation due to that. It’s really affecting all travellers for a couple of days as we’re trying to kind of catch up to really get our routes back to normal and operations in a safe manner.”

Staff at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport say the weather has impacted things on their end as well.

“About 10 per cent of our flights were cancelled due to weather locally, but that more than doubles if we account for weather that’s occurring elsewhere in Canada, in particular in Quebec and Ontario,” said Tiffany Chase, a spokesperson for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Moncton resident Lyndon Pike ran into issues flying to Montreal with his family over the weekend to watch the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament.

“We hit a storm on both ends, so we ended up going up there early on Wednesday and was scheduled to get home on Sunday, but that all turned to chaos,” said Pike.

Pike was able to get a flight to Fredericton and then rented a car to get back to Moncton.

“The flights put a little damper on the weekend, but, not enough to deter us from doing it again. It was extra time with the family, but they’re stuck there until actually probably Wednesday, maybe Thursday,” he said.

“That’s life in Canada, I guess. You know, my family we’re all from Labrador, and winter storms are nothing new to us.”

This time of year, many Maritimers head south to escape the wintry weather. Both airport say they have staff working 24/7 to ensure things run smoothly, but travellers should always check with their airline during weather events for cancellations or delays.