Travellers across Canada are facing another day of schedule chaos as Air Canada delays more than one hundred flights and cancels at least ten, snarling operations at major hubs in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. The disruptions, unfolding on February 10, 2026, are compounding weeks of weather-related turmoil and operational strain for the country’s largest carrier and leaving thousands of passengers scrambling to rebook journeys, secure overnight accommodation and salvage long‑planned trips.
Wave of Disruptions Across Major Canadian Hubs
By mid-morning Monday, flight-tracking data showed at least 113 Air Canada departures and arrivals delayed across the network, with a further 10 flights cancelled outright. The bulk of affected services are concentrated at the airline’s principal hubs: Toronto Pearson, Vancouver International, Montreal–Trudeau and Calgary International. Secondary airports including Ottawa, Halifax and Winnipeg are also reporting knock-on delays as aircraft and crews remain out of position.
Toronto Pearson, Air Canada’s largest hub, is again bearing the brunt of the disruption. The airport has been grappling with heavy winter weather over the last several weeks, including record-breaking snowfall in late January that forced hundreds of cancellations in a single day. As operations attempt to normalize, even relatively modest bouts of snow, freezing drizzle or strong crosswinds can ripple through tightly packed schedules, pushing back departure times and shrinking already narrow connection windows.
In Vancouver, lingering low cloud, gusty winds and ongoing congestion in transpacific traffic are creating bottlenecks at peak departure banks. Arriving flights are landing behind schedule, reducing turnaround time on the ground and forcing dispatchers to juggle departure slots. Montreal–Trudeau and Calgary are contending with sub-zero temperatures and persistent de-icing backlogs that lengthen ground handling times and delay aircraft pushback from the gate.
While the specific causes of each delayed or cancelled flight vary, the overall picture is of a system under strain. Air Canada’s hub‑and‑spoke model depends on tight, predictable flight waves. When weather or operational hiccups at one major node disrupt that rhythm, the repercussions can quickly spread across the national network, affecting routes that, on paper, lie far from the original problem.
A Winter of Mounting Stress on Canada’s Air Network
This latest wave of disruptions comes at the tail end of a particularly punishing stretch of winter weather for Canadian aviation. In late January, a sprawling North American winter storm buried parts of Ontario and Quebec under some of the heaviest snowfalls on record, forcing Toronto Pearson and Montreal–Trudeau to curtail operations as crews raced to clear runways, taxiways and aprons. Airlines, including Air Canada, cancelled and delayed hundreds of flights as visibility plunged and aircraft de-icing queues stretched for hours.
Shortly afterward, a brutal cold snap swept from New Brunswick through the Prairies. Temperatures plunged to extreme lows, prompting airports and airlines to scale back operations for safety reasons. Jet bridges and ground equipment struggled in the cold, while de-icing crews grappled with frostbite risks and equipment failures. In Toronto and Montreal, Air Canada warned passengers that significant delays were likely and offered flexibility to rebook affected trips.
These successive weather shocks have reduced the system’s ability to bounce back quickly when new disruptions occur. Aircraft and crews are still being repositioned after January’s cancellations, and some maintenance tasks delayed by earlier storms are now coming due. With February traditionally a busy period for winter sun getaways and family travel around school breaks, the timing is particularly difficult for both airlines and travellers.
For passengers, the effect is cumulative. Many who endured long delays or missed connections during previous storms are now confronting fresh flight changes, often on the very itineraries they rebooked only days earlier. The result is a growing sense of fatigue and frustration, especially among travellers who feel they have exhausted their flexibility with work, childcare and accommodation arrangements.
Inside the Passenger Experience: Missed Connections and Frayed Nerves
In terminal buildings from Vancouver to Montreal, the disruption is most visible in the clusters of travellers gathered around departure boards, watching departure times slide back in five- and ten-minute increments. Long lines snake from customer service desks as passengers seek rebooking options or vouchers for meals and hotels. Lounge staff are reporting higher than usual occupancy as delayed passengers look for quiet corners to wait out the uncertainty.
For international travellers, missed connections have become a central concern. Air Canada’s hubs act as gateways between North America, Europe and Asia, with carefully timed banks of arrivals feeding onward flights. When an inbound service from, say, New York or Halifax lands late in Toronto, passengers connecting to London, Frankfurt or Tokyo may see their minimum connection times evaporate. Even if the onward flight itself is operating, tight transfer windows are easily breached by long security queues or gate changes.
Families and leisure travellers heading to sun destinations are feeling the disruption acutely. Many winter holiday packages combine flights, hotel stays and transfers into a single itinerary. When flights are delayed by more than a few hours, ground transfers may no longer align with arrival times, and resort check‑ins can be missed. Some travellers are arriving at destinations in the middle of the night, navigating unfamiliar airports and local transport options after an already exhausting travel day.
Business travellers, meanwhile, are facing the knock‑on effects of rescheduled meetings and missed events. For those whose work trips involve multiple legs across North America or onward to Europe, a delayed first sector can render carefully calibrated day trips or overnight turnarounds impossible. While videoconferencing has softened some of the blow, not every meeting is easily moved online, and some deals, site visits and conferences remain rooted in face‑to‑face interaction.
Air Canada’s Response and Passenger Rights Landscape
Air Canada has been advising affected customers to monitor their flight status online or via the airline’s mobile app and has reactivated flexible rebooking policies on a number of routes. In many cases, passengers whose flights are severely delayed or cancelled are being offered the option to change their travel dates or reroute through alternative hubs without change fees, subject to seat availability. Call centre wait times, however, have stretched into hours at peak periods as thousands of travellers seek assistance simultaneously.
Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, airlines have specific obligations when flights are delayed or cancelled, depending on the cause and duration of the disruption. When delays are within the carrier’s control, airlines may owe passengers compensation, meal vouchers, hotel accommodation or ground transport to and from lodging. If the primary cause is deemed to be weather or air traffic control restrictions, the obligations focus more on rebooking and providing information than on direct monetary compensation.
The line between weather‑driven and carrier‑controlled disruptions can be blurry from a passenger’s perspective. An initial delay might be triggered by a snowburst or freezing rain, but secondary issues such as crew duty‑time limits or mechanical checks can take over as the proximate cause of further schedule slippage. For travellers, it is important to keep documentation of delay notifications, boarding passes and receipts in order to file claims later, whether through the airline, the Canadian Transportation Agency or travel insurance providers.
Consumer advocates in Canada have been urging travellers to familiarize themselves with their rights before heading to the airport. They recommend verifying whether the delay crosses key thresholds, such as three or six hours, that may trigger specific entitlements, and emphasize that even in weather‑related events, airlines must still provide timely information about the status of flights and available options.
Practical Advice for Travellers Caught in the Turmoil
For those with upcoming trips on Air Canada, preparation can make the difference between a stressful scramble and a manageable, if inconvenient, delay. Travellers are encouraged to confirm their flight status repeatedly in the 24 hours before departure, not just once. Conditions in Canadian winter can change quickly, and airlines often roll out schedule adjustments in waves as forecasts evolve and operational capacity becomes clearer.
Building in additional buffer time between connections is another key tactic. While Air Canada publishes minimum connection times for its hubs, these figures are based on normal operations and do not account for extraordinary de-icing queues or extended taxi times in winter storms. Where possible, travellers might opt for longer layovers between domestic and international sectors or choose earlier flights in the day, which tend to be less exposed to cumulative delays.
At the airport, passengers should head straight to their gate on arrival and monitor gate‑area announcements as well as the mobile app. Gate agents are often the first to receive updated departure information or last‑minute aircraft swaps. In the case of severe delay or cancellation, approaching agents early can increase the chances of being rebooked on alternative flights before remaining seats are snapped up by other disrupted passengers.
Travel insurance, often treated as an afterthought, has become a more central consideration for winter travel through Canada’s major hubs. Policies that cover trip interruption, missed connections and extra accommodation can soften the financial blow of extended disruptions. Travellers should review policy terms carefully, paying attention to coverage limits for hotels and meals, and to whether weather‑related delays are treated differently from airline operational issues.
Operational Challenges Behind the Scenes
While passengers experience flight disruptions primarily as a personal inconvenience or financial hit, the operational challenges for airlines and airports during a winter of repeated storms are considerable. At hubs like Toronto and Montreal, every snowfall triggers a complex choreography of snowplows, de-icing vehicles and runway inspections, all of which must be carefully sequenced to keep at least some traffic moving while maintaining safety margins.
De-icing, in particular, is both time‑consuming and highly sensitive to weather conditions. Aircraft that have been sprayed with de-icing fluid must depart within a specific “holdover time” window before the fluid loses effectiveness. When departure queues lengthen, pilots may have to return to the pad for a second round of de-icing, further extending delays and tying up ground equipment. The combination of limited de-icing capacity and intense departure banks at peak times is a major contributor to winter schedule instability.
Crew scheduling is another critical pressure point. Pilots and flight attendants are subject to strict duty‑time regulations designed to prevent fatigue. When flights are significantly delayed or ground times extend unexpectedly, crews can “time out,” meaning they are no longer legally allowed to operate. Replacing them requires available reserve crews at the right airport, which is not always possible when disruptions are widespread. A flight that might otherwise depart in marginal weather conditions may be cancelled simply because no legal crew is left to fly it.
Maintenance requirements add a further layer of complexity. Harsh winter operations, including repeated de-icing, cold‑weather starts and rough taxi conditions, can accelerate wear on aircraft components. When inspections reveal emerging issues, airlines face the choice between taking an aircraft out of service for repairs and risking a more serious problem later. In the current climate of global supply chain constraints and high aircraft utilization, pulling a jet from rotation can ripple through dozens of flights over subsequent days.
Broader Implications for Canadian Travel and Tourism
The current bout of disruptions at Air Canada arrives at a delicate moment for Canada’s travel and tourism sector. After several years of pandemic‑related restrictions and uneven recovery, the industry has been working to rebuild passenger confidence and restore international visitor numbers. Reliable air connectivity is a cornerstone of that effort, especially for regions that depend heavily on inbound tourism or international student traffic.
For domestic travellers, repeated headlines about cancellations and delays risk fostering a perception that winter travel is simply too unreliable to be worth the trouble. That could push some Canadians to delay trips or pivot to rail and road options where available. For smaller communities that rely on connecting flights through the big hubs, decreased confidence in air travel can translate directly into reduced visitor numbers and slower economic activity during what is already a lean season in many parts of the country.
Internationally, prolonged volatility in Canada’s air network could influence how travellers from Europe, Asia and the United States plan their itineraries. Visitors who have the option of connecting through American hubs or via European carriers may choose routes they perceive as more resilient to disruption, even if total travel time is slightly longer. Over time, such shifts in booking patterns can reshape the competitive landscape for airlines and airports alike.
The tourism industry, from hotel associations to destination marketing organizations, is closely watching the situation. While many accept that extreme winter weather is a fact of life in Canada, there is growing interest in how airlines and airports can fortify their operations, invest in more robust winter equipment and refine contingency plans so that inevitable storms translate into shorter, more manageable interruptions rather than cascading days of chaos.
What Comes Next for Travellers and the Airline
In the near term, travellers should be prepared for continued volatility in Air Canada’s schedules as winter progresses. Even if no single storm reaches the scale of January’s weather systems, a series of smaller disturbances can still produce significant cumulative disruption when layered on top of an already stressed network. Airlines will be working to restore slack into their schedules, reposition aircraft and balance crew rosters, but these adjustments take time.
For passengers with trips in the coming weeks, the most pragmatic strategy is a blend of vigilance and flexibility. Book itineraries with realistic connection times, consider earlier departures when possible, and keep a careful eye on forecasts for hub cities, not just origin and destination. Have a contingency plan if a key leg is cancelled, whether that is rerouting through a different airport, shifting travel by a day or making temporary use of remote work to absorb an unexpected overnight stay.
Looking further ahead, the recurring pattern of winter disruptions is likely to fuel broader discussions about the resilience of Canada’s aviation system. Questions around infrastructure investment, de-icing capacity, runway configurations and staffing levels will be part of an ongoing conversation among airlines, airports, regulators and labour groups. For travellers, the hope is that each difficult winter prompts incremental improvements that, over time, lead to fewer mornings spent watching departure boards flicker with bad news.
For now, anyone booked on Air Canada in the coming days should treat the situation with caution but not panic. Most flights are still operating, albeit with higher than usual chances of delay. By staying informed, understanding their rights and building a little extra resilience into their own plans, travellers can navigate a challenging season with as little disruption as the weather, and the airline, will allow.