Winter storm blasting U.S. East Coast delays, cancels flights at Pearson
90 per cent of all flights cancelled at LaGuardia as 'bomb cyclone' moves up U.S. East Coast
Passengers travelling through Toronto Pearson International Airport can expect delays and cancellations Thursday as parts of the U.S. prepare for a "bomb cyclone" bringing up to a foot of snow in some areas.
As of Thursday morning, flights in and out of U.S. cities impacted by the storm barrelling up the East Coast have caused approximately 15 per cent of all flights to be cancelled at Pearson.
In a tweet Wednesday night, LaGuardia Airport in New York reported that more than 90 per cent of its flights had been cancelled for the following day.
Fliers are urged to check with their carriers before heading to the PA’s airports tomorrow. More than 90 percent of LGA flights, more than 70 percent of Newark Liberty flights and 20 percent of JFK flights already are cancelled due to snow forecast.
—@LGAairportTechnical difficulties hit U.S. customs
Adding to the chaos was a temporary nationwide outage of U.S. Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance kiosks.
The machines — which help speed up the work of customs officers by scanning passports, gathering information and printing out receipts — experienced a Canada-wide shutdown, affecting both Terminal 1 and 3 at Pearson for a few hours Thursday morning.
The <a href="https://twitter.com/CustomsBorder?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CustomsBorder</a> kiosks used to process passengers to U.S. are back in service. Thank you for your patience during the systemwide outage.
—@TorontoPearsonBeverly MacDonald, senior advisor of communications for GTAA, said the outage wasn't "backing up things in Terminal 1 at all," but that there was a longer line up at Terminal 3. She explained that extra staff had been deployed to help alleviate the back up.
Extreme cold weather expected
With temperatures expected to go down to as low as -33 C with the windchill Thursday night, the extreme cold could cause an additional slow down at Pearson. Monday's wintry weather caused hundreds of delays and cancellations at the airport.
MacDonald said cold weather affecting vehicles and equipment, as well as ground crews, has also slowed down operations.
"For [the ground crew's] safety we make sure that in between flights they go inside, so they're not outside for eight hours straight," MacDonald told CBC Toronto. "We want to make sure we're protecting our staff and giving them ample opportunities to warm up."
If anyone has a flight booked through Pearson today, MacDonald warns travellers to check ahead and know your flight status before arriving.