‘Let us out!’: Multiple delays, cancellations at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario as crews struggle to clear the runways
Published March 22, 2024 at 8:01 pm
More than 60 flights have been delayed at Pearson Airport as of this writing and a dozen cancelled due to the snowfall, with about 13 centimetres expected.
Some international flights are experiencing delays of three to four hours, while others – including most domestic flights – seeing delays of an hour or less as crews try to remove the snow as quickly as possible.
Many of the cancellations are also because of snowfall at the end point of the flight, with three flights to New York cancelled, as well as flights to Charlotte, NC, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Boston and to Canadian destinations in Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and London, Ontario.
The cancelled flights represent 4.6 per cent of flights leaving Pearson tonight.
Some travellers have taken to the airport’s socials to express their displeasure with the delays, with one responder getting right to the point: “Let us out!”
Another also wanted to be allowed to leave the airplane and go home. “Open the doors of the aircraft! This is ridiculous.”
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A third questioned why the “small amount of snow” is too much for a Canadian Airport to handle, adding that his wife’s flight was delayed for more than two hours “because YYZ can’t clean the runway!”
Pearson’s X account noted as much as three centimetres an hour will fall on airport runways, taxing crews to keep the taxiways, aprons, and runways as clear as possible.
A statement from the airport reminds travellers to take “extra caution” when travelling to and from the airport with the winter weather and to “drive with care and give yourself extra time.”
