‘It’s been a long day’: Snowstorm disrupts travel at Saskatoon airport

WATCH: Major winter storm in Saskatoon is having impact on travel Wednesday.

It was a not-so-warm welcome for those arriving at Saskatoon airport on Wednesday.

One of those travellers was Lenaya Veinot, who was coming home to Melfort for the holidays alongside her dog, Lily.

“It’s been a long day. We’ve been traveling since three in the morning, which is really hard on her,” Lenaya Veinot said.

It was a stressful day for Lenaya and Lily, and also for Lenaya’s father, Blake Veinot, who travelled in from Melfort to pick up his daughter from the airport.

“My daughter’s plane got canceled in Halifax. So then they had to re plane her for an earlier one. They tried to beat the storm, so they did. And then that was delayed another hour or so it’s been a long morning,” Blake Veinot said.

The Veinots aren’t the only ones navigating a stressful travel day. Nik Korniinko recently arrived from Toronto after a number of cancellations and delays.

“I wasn’t expecting to land here today because on the forecast, it was windy and gusting. But the pilots did a good job and they landed me. So I am getting to work now, so I’m happy about it,” Korniinko said.

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According to the vice-president of business development and service quality at Saskatoon airport, CJ Dushinski, the airport has been keeping a close eye on the storm prior to it hitting Saskatoon.

“Our operations team spends a lot of time monitoring weather, monitoring incoming reports and then making sure we’re really staffing accordingly, especially when it’s related to airfield and snow removal and making sure we have the staff and equipment ready and available to be able to respond to moving a lot of snow around,” Dushinski said.

Dushinski added that cancellations are typically a decision made by the airlines. Air Canada, WestJet and Rise Air have all been forced to cancel flights due to the storm.

“We’ve had quite a few pre-emptive cancellations. I would say that airlines start to make those cancellation decisions actually ahead of the weather event to help kind of protect their network, so that they can start rebooking people in a timely fashion. So we’ve had about six or seven inbound cancellations and about seven outbound cancellations today,” Dushinski said.

The poor conditions are affecting much more than just air travel. RCMP spokesperson Keely Grasser said officers have been very busy throughout the day due to a high volume of calls related to the weather.

“We can’t emphasize this enough, if you don’t have to be on the roads tonight, please don’t be. And if you’re in an area that’s affected by weather, always check the Highway Hotline before you set out today or any day this Winter,” Grasser said.

As for the Veinots, they are ready to get home to Melfort as quickly and safely as possible.

“We were a little worried we wouldn’t get home for Christmas, but we managed to get here all in one piece now to actually get home on the road,” Lenaya Veinot said.

“I’m used to driving in the snow now. I just want to get home as soon as I can to get out of this weather,” Blake Veinot said.