Flight disruptions expected to extend into Saturday as holiday weekend storm hits British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec

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Flight disruptions across the country are expected to carry into the weekend, as Friday’s severe snowstorms in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec continue to batter airports – with many travellers stranded during a peak holiday travel period.

Data from live flight-tracking platform FlightAware show that at least 60 Saturday flights to and from international airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa alone have been cancelled, and a handful have been marked already as delayed.

The reported disruptions are an improvement from Friday but could worsen if weather conditions do not improve.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. said Friday afternoon that it would extend its cancellations into the holiday weekend, with at least 15 flights cancelled on Saturday so far.

The company previously cancelled all flights in or out of Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday, and all flights to Vancouver International Airport until Friday afternoon – accounting for more than half of all its trips, according to WestJet.

Porter Airlines said the company is currently assessing the weather impact on its Saturday operations. While the airline could not provide exact cancellation numbers, Flightaware indicates that nearly half of Porter’s Friday flights would not operate. The company’s website shows winter storm warnings for Saturday flights to Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City and St. John’s.

Air Canada has yet to announce flight cancellations for Saturday, but also listed snow warnings for the same destinations. The airline cancelled hundreds of flights across the country Friday, including all in and out of Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport.

WestJet, Air Canada and Porter all said they would offer refunds for flights cancelled over the holiday weekend.

Jazz Aviation, a regional carrier based out of Halifax, has cancelled 33 Saturday flights as of Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Air Transat said the airline has yet to cancel any flights, but is monitoring the weather carefully.

Canadian airports ranked among the world’s most disrupted as of Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware. Nearly two-thirds of flights destined for Pearson had been cancelled as of Friday afternoon, as had one-third of flights leaving the airport. Half of flights arriving at Billy Bishop had also been cancelled.

40 per cent of trips in and out of Vancouver, and 20 per cent in and out of Montreal, had been cancelled accordingly, with many more delayed, according to the flight tracker.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the company that runs Pearson, suggested in a statement that some delays could be caused by staffing shortages: “It is critical during the holidays that our partners continue to make every effort to address staffing provisions and crew allocations to deal with ongoing weather disruptions.”

Many airlines and airports faced difficulties filling roles as travel bounced back in full force during the summer, leading to long wait times on the tarmac, flight cancellations and luggage delays, especially at Pearson.

However, airlines have denied that employee counts are to blame for the current disruptions.

WestJet said in a statement that the company was “staffed appropriately for holiday travel,” but that the extreme weather prevented many of its employees and service partners from getting to work safely in some places. Moreover, the company said that facilitating mandatory crew rest requirements was proving to be a challenge.

Air Canada said the cancellations were not related to staffing issues: “We have 1,000 more employees than we did prior to the pandemic in late 2019. As well, our employees have been working overtime and extra hours taking care of customers.”

Airline staff are represented by several different unions based on function. The Canadian Union of Public Employees represents more than 10,000 cabin crew across nine airlines.

Flight attendants and cabin crew “are not in short supply across the sector, and the staffing shortages are in other areas of the workforce,” said Hugh Pouliot, a spokesperson for CUPE.

Ground staff are represented by UNIFOR, while pilots are represented by Air Line Pilots Association, International. Neither union responded to questions about staff shortages.