Frustrated travellers in Quebec and the East Coast are struggling to make their flights home for the holidays, after a massive weekend storm grounded planes and stranded hundreds of people.

Travellers Paul LeMay and his wife have spent the past two days in a Montreal airport, trying to find a flight to New Brunswick.

"We paid for some tickets from Air Canada but there's no service," he said.

The storm created hazardous road conditions and slowed traffic, so for some, even getting to the airport was a challenge.

Gertrude and Derek Andrews expected to reach Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in 30 minutes, but the drive took 2.5 hours. They faced a re-booking charge of $375 each.

"I called ahead and they said they would put a note on my file, but I was told if I wasn't here by 10 o'clock I would lose my place," Gertrude Andrews told CTV Montreal.

Officials said they had managed to ease much of the backlog by bringing in extra planes and clearing the runways of ice.

"They close one of the major runways, clean it up while the other one stays open and vice versa," said Jacqueline Richard of Aeroports de Montreal.

Meanwhile, tempers flared in Nova Scotia as some passengers waited for more than two days inside Halifax's Stanfield International Airport.

Runways have been de-iced and airlines added extra flights to accommodate the backlog. But on Tuesday, a few passengers were still trying to get back to Newfoundland, where weather conditions remain a problem.

"It's very sad," said stranded traveller Pam Hefferton. "I can't believe I'm in this situation. But hey, that's it -- I'll never travel this time of year again."

Officials at the airport said they have almost completely resolved the backlog.

"We have made pretty much a complete recovery from yesterday," Peter Spurway, vice-president of corporate communications for the Halifax International Airport Authority, told CTV.ca.

"Both Air Canada and WestJet added flights last night and overnight so we are pretty much where we would normally be on a day in late December."

Hundreds of travellers were stranded as dozens of flights were cancelled because of a storm on Sunday, which brought both snow and rain to the region.

With continued high winds and freezing temperatures, the airport's runways failed to thaw as quickly as ice crews had hoped.

But Spurway said the airport is now almost fully operational.

Meanwhile, crews have restored power to thousands of homes in New Brunswick following the storm.

Up to 30 centimetres of snow was dumped on the region, knocking out electricity to more than 20,000 Maritimes customers.

With reports from CTV Atlantic and CTV Montreal