An Air Canada aircraft is de-iced at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. A major winter storm bearing down on Toronto is adding to the calamity in Canadian airports already plagued by flight cancellations and delays set off early this week by heavy snow in Vancouver.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
TORONTO – WestJet says it’s proactively cancelling flights at airports in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec as storm systems bear down on the regions.
The airline says the cancellations apply to all flights scheduled to arrive and depart Toronto’s Pearson International Airport beginning Friday at 9 a.m. eastern time until the end of the day.
All scheduled flights into and out of Vancouver International Airport between 11:50 p.m. Pacific time tonight and late Friday afternoon are also cancelled.
Other airports affected by the service disruptions include those in Ottawa, London, Montreal, Waterloo, Abbotsford, Victoria, Nanaimo and Comox.
The airline says all impacted guests have been notified.
Diederik Pen, WestJet’s chief operations officer, says in a statement the decision to stand down more flights is extremely difficult but necessary in order to fly safely with as little disruption as possible when the weather improves.
“The prolonged and extreme weather events that continue to impact multiple regions across Canada are unlike anything we’ve experienced,” Pen said Thursday.
