Snowstorm wreaks havoc on air travel plans, as recovery begins

MONTREAL – Canadian airlines continued to cancel flights by the hundreds following a record-breaking snowstorm that walloped southern Ontario and Quebec on Sunday before whirling farther east, though air travel already showed signs of recovery.

After more than 500 cancellations Sunday, aviation analytics firm Cirium said an additional 300-plus flights across the country had been called off as of 5 p.m. Monday, affecting tens of thousands of travellers.

Toronto’s Pearson airport saw at least 152 departures cancelled — 33 per cent — while the Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax airports had 101.

Pearson endured its highest daily total snowfall on record with 46 centimetres on Sunday, Environment Canada said. The airport warned of further delays Monday amid ongoing cleanup, as industrial snowplows and dump trucks worked through the day to clear massive piles from the tarmac and push them into snow melters near the gates.

Flights to and from Atlantic Canada and parts of the U.S. may be disrupted today, the airport said.

“With an event like this, it takes time for everyone’s flight schedules to get back to normal,” said Sean Davidson, a spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, in a phone interview.

In New York City, LaGuardia Airport shut down for several hours on Sunday.

“That airport alone will have a ripple effect up here in Toronto and other airports across North America,” Davidson said.

By day’s end, the Canadian cancellation tally had risen, with Air Canada saying it called off more than 300 flights Monday. But the broader figures marked an improvement from Sunday, when Pearson notched roughly 600 cancelled arrivals and departures versus about half that the following day.

“Subject to the weather remaining favourable, we anticipate our operations will recover at an increasing pace as aircraft and crew return to position, although the severe cold temperatures are hampering the process,” said Cale Daniels, Air Canada’s vice-president of systems operations control, in an email.

He said he expected a much lower cancellation total on Tuesday.

“The airlines have moved into recovery mode,” added Davidson. “As we continue into tonight and tomorrow, operations will begin to look more normal.”

Air travel will likely be disrupted for part of the week as service ramps back up, staggered over several days in step with the storm’s eastward progress.

The storm struck during a slower period of the winter travel season, allowing carriers more flexibility and resources to adapt.

“Our recovery has been steady, in part because we positioned aircraft outside Toronto so we could restart more quickly and assist our airport partners in restoring their operations,” Daniels said.

The blast comprised the northern tip of a winter storm that pummeled the Eastern United States over the weekend, resulting in more than 4,000 cancellations of departing and arriving flights, according to FlightAware.

Air Canada said customers with flights that were scheduled to take off or land at Pearson between last Friday and Monday could change their booking free of charge to a day in the following week, subject to availability.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2026.

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