One day after a Delta Airlines passenger plane crash landed on the tarmac at Toronto Pearson Airport, the ripple effect of flight disruptions is still being felt more than 400 kilometres away at the Ottawa International Airport.
Inclement weather also impacted travel across eastern Canada, as airlines scramble to catch up after the country’s largest airport was ground to a halt for more than two hours Monday.
Krissy Cress of Winnipeg was expecting to return to Manitoba on Sunday, but by Tuesday afternoon, she was still stuck in the nation’s capital.
First, she missed her connecting flight with Porter Airlines because of a winter storm. After being rebooked, her connection through Toronto was called off as operations at Pearson Airport were at a standstill.
“I am going kind of crazy. I have to work, my daughter has to go to school, and she’s missing her third-last game in minor hockey,” Cress said.
“I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I feel terrible for what happened at Pearson, however, I think Porter needs to do better.”
Cress was informed she will likely have to wait until Thursday to catch a flight to Winnipeg.
CTV News reached out to Porter Airlines, asking why the company has not booked flights for impacted travellers to get them to their final destinations, even if it means using a different airline.
“Many flights across the network were impacted by the weekend winter storms and the Delta incident at Toronto Pearson airport,” Porter Airlines said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa Wednesday morning.
“Our team is working diligently to realign crew and rebook passengers at the earliest availability. Our team continues to make every effort to find alternate connections for as many passengers as possible. Options for rebooking are limited, as many local airlines are in a similar position.”
Porter says it is working to get passengers to their destination as “quickly, and as safely, as possible.”
“We’re unhappy here. Porter’s service has not been good. I literally just got a call back after waiting for three hours, and I told the lady why I was calling, and she hung up on me,” Cress said.
Shaundell John of Edmonton was also trying to return home with her daughter, when their Monday afternoon flight was called off, leaving them stuck in Ottawa with little communication from Porter.
“We’ve just been waiting and waiting. Every half hour, they want us to come up to check with them to see if there is a flight, and there is nothing,” she said.
“We just have to sit here, and it’s really frustrating. My daughter has to go to school. I have to go to work. We need to get out of here.”
John and her daughter spent Monday night at the airport.
“We asked, ‘are you going to put us up in a hotel?’ We were told, ‘No. You have to make your own accommodations.’ How is that fair to anybody travelling?” she said.
“I’m frustrated, but I’m not showing that I’m frustrated because I know things happen. But we need to be treated better.”
John says she was informed that the earliest flight she and her daughter will likely be able to take to get back to Edmonton will be on Thursday. She adds, as of 1:00 p.m., all they received from Porter were food vouchers.
Aviation industry experts say clearing the flight backlog caused by the recent snowfall and plane crash will likely take days.
“I think Toronto was shut down for about two and a half hours which is about 150 to 160 flights. Those flights have either been cancelled or delayed,” said John Gradek, faculty lecturer in aviation management and supply chain management at McGill University.
“You have about 10,000 passengers at Toronto that need to get on an airplane to get out of Toronto to continue their trip, so it’s going to take a few days to find seats for those people and their bags to their destinations. So, expect some hiccups.”
Gradek says given the size and heavy foot traffic at Pearson, the domino effect is being felt across the country.
“It’s also a major hub for Canadian operations for both Air Canada and WestJet as well as Porter. That is a significant impact on their operations and their ability to fly people from point A to point B,” he said.
“It will take a few more days to get settled in.”
The crash landing in Toronto is also raising some pressing questions from travellers who might be worried about the safety of air travel.
“The question is, is commercial aviation still safe? The answer, of course, is yes. It is the safest mode of transportation that we have. But it’s not risk free,” Gradek said.
“There are incidents that will happen. Unfortunately, we’ve had this rapid cascade of a few incidents over the last couple of weeks, but it should not deter from the fact that aviation is the safest mode of transportation that we have.”
