A brutal cold snap sweeping across Canada has plunged the country’s aviation network back into turmoil, with thousands of passengers stranded as major carriers grapple with fresh waves of cancellations and delays. From Toronto and Vancouver to Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and beyond, airlines including Air Canada, WestJet, Jazz and Porter have been forced to trim schedules and slow operations as Arctic air, blowing snow and extreme wind chills complicate everything from de-icing to ground handling. According to recent operational tallies, the latest cold blast has contributed to dozens of flight cancellations and more than three hundred delays in a single day, deepening an already difficult winter for air travelers.
Deep Freeze Disrupts a Fragile Winter Air Network
The latest disruptions come on the heels of an exceptionally harsh stretch of winter weather that has battered Canadian aviation since late January. A cross-country surge of Arctic air sent temperatures plunging to below minus 30 degrees Celsius in Toronto and Ottawa and even lower across the Prairies, creating conditions that are both dangerous for ramp crews and technically challenging for aircraft operations. Airport operators have had to balance safety with the need to keep traffic moving, at times drastically reducing movements simply to allow for snow clearance and safe de-icing rotations.
At Toronto Pearson, Canada’s busiest hub, the cumulative impact of repeated snowfalls and persistent cold has been severe. In the space of several days, the airport has logged dozens of outright cancellations and well over a hundred delays on more than one occasion, with the most recent reports citing roughly 60 to 80 scrubbed flights and well over a hundred late departures and arrivals as crews struggled to work through hardened snowbanks and icy taxiways. Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa have posted their own tallies of disrupted flights, turning what should be routine domestic journeys into extended ordeals for business and leisure travelers.
What makes this cold snap particularly disruptive is its timing. It arrives directly after a record-breaking snowstorm that dumped more than 40 centimeters of snow on parts of southern Ontario and Quebec, including a single-day snowfall record at Toronto Pearson. Even as plows and snow melters were still working to clear that historic accumulation, a follow-up blast of frigid air swept in, triggering fresh operational constraints just as airlines were attempting to restore normal schedules.
Dozens of Cancellations, Hundreds of Delays in a Single Day
Within this broader pattern of winter chaos, the most recent day of operations has stood out for the breadth of its disruption. Across major Canadian carriers and their regional partners, roughly 60 to 70 flights have been cancelled outright, while more than 300 have been delayed, according to industry data reviewed by aviation analysts and travel media. Air Canada, its regional affiliate Jazz, WestJet, and Porter Airlines are among those most affected, though the ripple effects extend to smaller regional operators and international carriers feeding into Canadian hubs.
On the mainline side, Air Canada has registered dozens of cancellations and upward of 60 delays in a single operational day at the height of the cold snap. Jazz, which operates many of the feeder routes into Toronto, Montreal and other hubs, has shouldered an even heavier share of cancellations relative to its size, with more than 40 flights scrubbed and dozens more running late on that same day. WestJet and its regional services have reported their own cluster of cancellations and a large volume of delayed departures, particularly on routes touching Western Canada and transcontinental corridors.
Porter Airlines, with its growing network from Toronto and Ottawa to cities across Canada and into the United States, has also felt the strain. While the carrier has kept outright cancellations relatively low, it has contended with scores of delayed flights as ground crews work through prolonged de-icing queues and weather-driven air traffic control spacing. For passengers, the distinction between a cancellation and a long delay can feel academic. Both outcomes translate into missed connections, hours spent in crowded terminals and, in some cases, unexpected overnights far from home.
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Edmonton Bear the Brunt
Geographically, the worst of the disruption has centered on Canada’s busiest airports, where high traffic volumes magnify the operational impact of every weather delay. Toronto Pearson remains the primary flashpoint. As the country’s central hub for both domestic and international traffic, any reduction in capacity there quickly cascades across the network. On recent storm days, more than half of all flights at Pearson were either cancelled or significantly delayed, triggering a chain reaction that has touched airports from Halifax to Vancouver.
Vancouver International has been wrestling with its own brand of winter challenges, including freezing rain, gusty coastal winds and periods of low visibility. While the West Coast rarely sees the brutal deep freeze common in the Prairies, the combination of marginal temperatures and wet conditions can be equally problematic for air operations. On some days, Vancouver has recorded double-digit cancellation rates and a substantial share of delayed flights as airlines slow the pace of arrivals and departures to maintain safety margins on slick runways.
Montreal and Ottawa, sitting squarely in the path of recent winter storms, have also seen heavy disruption. In Montreal, banks of snow and crosswinds have forced a tightening of traffic flows, resulting in extended holding patterns for inbound aircraft and long queues for outbound departures. Ottawa, while smaller in scale, has experienced a concentration of cancellations that weigh heavily on travelers with limited alternative options. In Edmonton and other Prairie cities, extreme wind chills have periodically shut down ramp work altogether, forcing airlines to push back departure times until it is safe for ground personnel to operate.
Cold Weather Challenges: Safety, De‑Icing and Ground Operations
While passengers often see winter disruption mainly in terms of flight status boards, the operational challenges for airlines and airports during a deep freeze are complex and multifaceted. De‑icing is often the most visible and time-consuming element. Aircraft must be sprayed with heated glycol-based fluids to clear and protect wings and control surfaces from accumulating ice. In temperatures well below freezing, that process must sometimes be repeated if there are delays between de‑icing and takeoff, slowing the entire departure sequence.
Ground handling is another pressure point. Extreme cold can be hazardous for ramp workers, baggage handlers and maintenance crews, who are exposed to the elements for prolonged periods while loading cargo, connecting ground power, or towing aircraft. Airports and third-party ground handlers often introduce shorter shift rotations and mandatory warm-up breaks in these conditions, which, while essential for safety, reduce overall throughput on the apron. Equipment itself does not always cooperate. Tug engines, jet bridges and de‑icing rigs can malfunction more frequently in deep cold, adding yet another layer of potential delay.
In the control tower and operation centers, air traffic controllers and airline dispatchers must continuously adjust to changing wind directions, visibility levels and runway conditions. Crosswinds can render certain runways temporarily unusable, concentrating traffic on a smaller number of available configurations. Blowing snow and low ceilings reduce arrival rates, forcing aircraft into holding patterns or diverting them to alternate airports. These constraints, combined with limited gate availability and tight crew duty limits, can turn a relatively small weather window into a day-long operational puzzle.
Thousands of Passengers Stranded and Frustrated
For travelers, the cumulative effect of these operational strains is all too familiar: long queues at check-in counters, clogged security lines, crowded gate areas and overtaxed customer service desks. With each wave of severe weather, thousands of passengers across Canada find themselves sleeping on terminal floors, scrambling to rebook itineraries, or anxiously watching for any sign that their flights might depart. Social media feeds from recent days have been filled with images of snaking lineups at Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International, as well as reports of multi-hour waits just to speak with an airline representative.
Families returning from vacations, business travelers en route to critical meetings, and students heading back to university have all been caught in the fallout. Many face not just the inconvenience of a delayed departure, but the domino effect of missed connections onward to the United States, Europe or Asia. In some cases, passengers who finally secure a rebooked flight discover that their checked bags did not make the same journey, adding a secondary layer of disruption to an already stressful experience.
Accommodation is another pressure point in prolonged weather events. When cancellations pile up late in the day, nearby airport hotels quickly sell out, leaving travelers to scramble for rooms farther afield or resign themselves to overnighting in the terminal. Some airlines have provided hotel and meal vouchers, particularly when passengers are far from home, but in many weather-related scenarios carriers are under no legal obligation to do so. This patchwork of policies, combined with limited availability, has left many stranded passengers covering unexpected expenses out of pocket.
Airline Responses: Waivers, Rebooking and Limited Options
In response to the cold snap and its companion snowstorms, Canada’s major airlines have activated weather waivers and flexible rebooking policies on multiple occasions. Air Canada, WestJet and others have allowed affected passengers to change travel dates without incurring standard change fees, particularly on itineraries touching the hardest-hit airports. These waivers are designed to spread demand away from peak storm periods, giving airlines more room to stabilize their schedules and avoid leaving large numbers of customers stranded.
Despite these measures, rebooking options have often been limited. With aircraft and crews already out of position from earlier storms, and with high load factors on remaining flights, many passengers have found that the next available seat might be one or two days away. Regional routes served by smaller aircraft have been especially challenging, as each cancellation removes a relatively large share of the day’s capacity on that city pair. Some travelers have resorted to creative routing, cobbling together multi‑stop journeys through less affected hubs or using train and bus connections to complete segments of their trips.
Customer service systems have also come under strain. Call centers have reported surge volumes that result in multi-hour hold times, while airport service counters at major hubs are frequently lined with passengers seeking rebooking assistance or guidance on compensation. Although many carriers have encouraged travelers to use mobile apps and websites to self-manage changes, technology does not always keep pace with the rapid operational shifts seen during major winter events, leading to occasional discrepancies between what systems display and what is actually possible.
A Difficult Winter in a Longer-Term Context
This latest bout of cold-weather disruption joins a troubling longer-term trend for Canadian air travelers. Data compiled over recent winters show that millions of passengers in Canada have experienced significant delays or cancellations during the peak December to February period. One major passenger-rights organization recently estimated that more than ten million travelers faced some degree of disruption over a single winter season, with nearly a million of those contending with outright cancellations. The current 2025–26 winter is shaping up to be similarly challenging, if not worse, due to the combination of frequent storms and a tightly stretched airline industry.
Airlines and airports argue that they have invested heavily in winter resilience, from expanded de‑icing facilities and additional snow removal equipment to refined staffing plans and improved communications. Yet the sheer intensity of recent weather events has repeatedly pushed these systems to their limits. Record-breaking snow totals, extended cold snaps and back-to-back storms have left little recovery time between events, ensuring that each new blast of Arctic air lands on a network that is already fragile.
For travelers, the lesson is sobering but clear. Winter flying in Canada has always required a measure of flexibility, but in the current climate it demands even greater preparation and patience. Travel advisors increasingly recommend booking nonstop flights where possible, avoiding last departures of the day, and building longer connection windows into itineraries. Many also urge passengers to travel with essentials in carry-on bags, including medications, chargers, basic toiletries and a change of clothes, in case checked luggage is delayed or overnight disruptions occur.
Looking Ahead: Recovery Timelines and What Passengers Can Expect
As temperatures gradually moderate and snow crews carve runways and taxiways back to full width, airlines will work to restore their schedules, reposition aircraft and reset crew rotations. Industry experts caution, however, that recovery from a severe cold snap and its associated storms is rarely instantaneous. Even after the skies clear, residual delays can linger for a day or two as carriers absorb stranded passengers onto already busy flights and resolve backlog in maintenance and ground handling tasks.
In the immediate term, passengers with upcoming flights in and out of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and other affected airports are being urged to monitor their flight status frequently and to sign up for airline text or email alerts. Those with flexible schedules may wish to voluntarily rebook away from the busiest storm-adjacent travel days, taking advantage of any waivers on offer. Travelers who must fly in the midst of ongoing disruptions should prepare for long lines and possible schedule changes, arriving early at the airport and keeping critical items in their carry-on luggage.
Ultimately, Canada’s latest cold snap has underlined once again how vulnerable modern air travel remains to the extremes of winter. With 67 cancellations and 316 delays recorded during just one phase of this unfolding event, and many more disruptions registered on adjacent days, the season has been a harsh reminder that even the most sophisticated aviation systems are at the mercy of weather. For thousands of passengers stuck across Canadian airports this week, the numbers have been less important than a simple, pressing question: when will they finally be able to go home.