Toronto Air Show cancelled Sunday due to poor weather

CTV National News: Return of airshow at the CNE Andrew Brennan reports on planes taking to the skies to cap off Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition — for the first time since 2019.

The Toronto Air Show was cancelled on Sunday due to poor weather conditions.

Officials made the call shortly after 2:30 p.m.

“Safety is of paramount importance to the Canadian International Air Show,” a statement said. “Due to current conditions we have been cancelled the safety of our performers, crews and spectators.”

“We will provide updates regarding the status of any future shows.”

The air show was supposed to run from noon until 3 p.m. daily over the Labour Day long weekend.

The notifications began to pop up on social media from CIAS Toronto shortly after 12 p.m. saying that performances would go on as long as they meet “minimum safety requirements.” They warned at the time that the schedule could be fluid. Over the next few hours performances were either cancelled or put on hold amid cloudy and wet weather.

Kyle Fowler, an air show pilot who was able to take to the skies on Sunday prior to the cancellation, told CP24 the weather conditions were misty and not ideal.

“It wasn’t great,” he said. “I was fortunate enough that I got to go up in the air. I went up first to go do a weather check.”

“The minimum ceiling we need is 1,000 feet. When I took off out to the east, we definitely didn’t have that.”

Fowler said that some of the safety margins for the other aircraft are larger, which meant that he was the only one who was able to fly as of 1:30 p.m.

“I mean it’s so disappointing. We absolutely love what we do,” he said. “we love to entertain the people.”

“It’s very disappointing for all of us.”

Environment Canada forecast a 30 per cent chance of showers in Toronto on Sunday. It has been primarily cloudy since early morning.

It is unclear if fans who purchased tickets to the fan zone will get any reimbursements due to the cancellations.