Edmonton air travel delays, cancellations continue after winter storm

A day after a winter storm walloped the Prairies, passengers at the Edmonton International Airport continued to face delays and cancellations ahead of the holidays.

Over 18 flights going in and out of Edmonton were cancelled due to a blizzard which dumped about 25 cm of snow at the airport.

“Across the prairies right now we are seeing quite a bit of substantial winter moving through, so realistically we’re looking at this as trying to maintain our operations as safely as we possibly can, and ensuring we can get our passengers where they need to go at a very important time of the year,” said a spokesperson for the Edmonton International Airport.

Some air travellers visiting family for the holidays faced delays flying in or out of Edmonton.

Aleksei Antoniukov, who was flying to Kelowna, said, “We were already in the Uber when we got the notification.”

While Antoniukov’s flight was only delayed by 23 minutes, others like Rachelle Grad, faced a day’s long wait.

“I was coming home to visit my family for Christmas and flying out of Montreal, and we got delayed because of the blizzard here,” Grad said.

But, others faced cancellations — sometimes at the last minute.

Alex Dernier, who was headed to see his mother in Halifax, got a notification that his flight was cancelled while in the airport parking lot.

“I came to the airport to try to come home and guess I ain’t goin’ home,” Dernier said.

Minhtri Doan, who was flying to Winnipeg, said, “My flight got cancelled, I was waiting for them to send an email out, but I wasn’t able to get one, so I was pretty stressed.”

Dernier was not giving up hope on his journey home.

“I just wanna go see my mother,” said Dernier, who was figuring out alternatives to get home.

“I’ve got my mother who’s a ‘get-er-done woman,'” Dernier said. “She’ll get-er-done on the phone probably before I do, because I’m a little bit nicer than her.”

Airport officials are reminding passengers to check flight status before leaving home and to leave extra time for driving on wintery roads and to get through security during the busy holiday season.