YYT Blizzard - Day X of no commercial ops
 

What a storm we had here in YYT this past Friday! Not a single commercial aircraft has landed at the airport since 1:30 AM Friday morning...

I am sure we have seen longer times without any flights before, but this really seems unprecedented!

We will definitely be seeing some big metal when the airport reopens (if it does)! Lol

Can anyone get to or from the airport from the city right now?

The airport is ready for commercial flight ops (apparently), but city is still under a state of emergency. Nobody is allowed to drive around unless you are a commercial plow operator or essential worker.

Pretty crazy! I feel bad for the AC employees already who are going to have to deal with lots of irate customers in the coming days when everything returns to normal...

Latest update from the airport authority is no commercial flights before the morning of January 22. The airfield itself is operational and being used by military / emergency aircraft only.

Yes, that is correct!

Scroll down after you click this link to see all the before and after photos! It is absolutely wild.

Lots of social media reports of customers flights cancelled and no answer on the phone from AC and no way to rebook

At least for once this is a TRUE weather delay/cancellation for AC to reject compensation.

But there are flights taking off and landing!! This cant be weather!

Yeah it looks like the airport is holding out on commercial flights until the state of emergency is lifted.

Once AC gets the go-ahead it seems like an armada of widebodies will be on their way to YYT!

Twitter

My dad was originally booked on a flight arriving yesterday, rebooked to Thursday. No indications of widebodies coming yet. And even though he was stuck in a connecting airport, no compensations were offered. Luckily relatives live in the transit point.

The town of Conception Bay South has lifted its state of emergency entirely, while my town allows normal lives for much of the day. Just in time for me to run out to get more fuel for my snowblower that was running on fumes 😂

A runway clear of snow doesn't mean the apron is. I've never seen "C130" painted on a parking line, anyway.

Soldiers and dogs can disembark direct into a 20' snowbank.

They can’t really open the airport until they allow cars and taxis to go to and from it. I’m supposed to fly there tomorrow on business, but if there are no taxis, won’t be able to get in and if office isn’t open due to SOE, what is the point?

Hahahaha in the classic Newfoundland fashion, the majority of people are just out looking around (or going for a gawk), but some people actually need essential fuel like yourself!

I wonder if we could get a B787 to clear the backlog of pax? That is the one aircraft we have never seen here for a relief flight!

And that is exactly what they did based on the pictures! Lol

Air Canada should contract the Canadian Forces Hercules to clear the backlog NOW. Military aircrafts are allowed, no? :D

If this drags on and the airport is closed to commercial air traffic into next week, I might have my dad booked to come in through YQX. Roads in CBS and beyond are much better.

Hahaha as an AV geek, I approve of this message :D

CBC The National anchor Adrienne Arsenault flew into YQX the other day before driving to YYT. The National was live from Georgestown neighbourhood last night!

I would assume YYT reopening is directly linked to the State of Emergency in St John's. SOE still in effect, pax and staff can't get to or from the airport. Now as of today you could probably drive from CBS, Paradise, Mt Pearl (all of whom have suspended their SOE during the day time) to YYT with no issues but there you go! I'm due to fly out of YYT on a trip next Weds. Chances of that happening I wonder?!

Yea it’s all about the state of the roads. Putting airport traffic on the streets now is not a good idea. Same reason schools are closed to next week, university shut, and restaurants and retail too.

Highways and main roads are doing pretty good but city streets are definitely not. If an ambulance of fire truck needs access the slightest traffic is going to snarl up the whole place. They still need to get food shipments moving, fuel trucks going... etc. It’s still gonna be a while getting back to normal here.

Anyone feels like creating a Wiki and dumping s bunch of pictures in it that show the extent of the blizzard?

Lots of stuff on social media (FB, Twitter, You Tube). Plus CBC, CTV etc. But here are a few pics for flavour...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...34d76ada3.jpeg
This is the main arterial highway into St Johns!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d538e2db3.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...163815d78.jpeg

Update: Airport reopens 5.00am tomorrow (Wednesday)

https://vocm.com/2020/01/21/city-of-...esday-morning/

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...800a3f5475.png
This is one of Peter Cowans. I hope it’s ok to put here it’s in twitterland. Shows the line up for a grocery store in centre cite St John’s today. Really shows you how extraordinary this is. We average 300cm+ Snow a year so it’s not like we’re newbs at this
look up a couple journos in St. John’s. Peter cowan at CBC has a mini drone and tweeted a bunch. Google #nlwx or #snowmaggedon2020 or #nltraffic

But 220+ cm fell since Christmas Eve. The single day snowfall record was broken, and my neighbours who had lived here for decades even say this is unusual.

Air Canada has switched a couple of flights from E90 to A321 for tomorrow. Hope food shipments come in over the next day or two, grocery store shelves are running out of fresh produce.

Looks like YYT is allowing some commercial aircraft to land before the SOE is lifted (for flight ops)!

I can hear two Dash 8s flying overhead right now, likely repositioning for flights tomorrow morning!

I wonder if AC is afraid to send any jumbo jets out of fear they could get stuck here? I was shocked to see that we are only getting a few A321s after five days of cancellations.

In the past, we have received a wide-body aircraft after just one day of cancellations!

Firstly, Jumbo jets? Wide bodies but no Jumbos :-)

Secondly, patience my young Padawan. Wide Bodies will come once airport opening is assured. Weather looks settled for the immediate future so less risk of getting a/c trapped here.

Sorry xpat! should have stuck to the one word lol, I am getting a bit eager!

Seeing as how I don't have work tomorrow given the SOE, I might need to make an "emergency" trip to the airport.

Now, of course, I am not going out just to take photos of whatever B777/A330/B787 that ends up flying here...

Look at the scheduling before the blizzard, two or three E90s a day mixed with one A320 and one A321, and most flights weren't booked full. A321 would be enough to clear some backlog. In addition, due to the MAX debacle, most widebodies need some rest and maintenance, sending them here while risking getting stuck here would not be in AC's best interest.

I would love for the Canadian Forces to bring in essential food supplies using their jumbo transports though. The harbour spaces are needed for dumping snow.

Edit: AC is still selling seats on the A321s coming in tomorrow, so obviously A321s are enough to clear the backlog.

sorry my meaning was more along the lines of if this extraordinary event is happening in St. John’s, where we are used to handling snow, it really is amazing to see those kinds of lines at our stores. I’m not in any way minimizing it. I have a few decades experience here I’m a lifelong townie and this is the worst I’ve seen as well. Apologies if I wasn’t clear.

AC tweeted to the effect that they are adding 1200 additional seats to YYT in the next day or so. According to FR24, I don't see any widebody flights but every flight is upgraded to A321 from E90 etc. Not sure how quickly that would add up to 1200 extra seats?

Westjet also tweeted about multiple extra flights but I don’t see those either.

2/3 remaining flights on AC from YYZ today show economy available on the app, fwiw.

My thoughts exactly...

The only way they could get that many additional seats is if they threw a few 777s or A330s (or similar) on the route. A321s will definitely clear a bit of backlog, but a larger aircraft would do this far more efficiently in one go.

It seems like the only additional flight AC has added is a single Rouge 319 on YHZ-YYT-YHZ. As others have said, it looks like the 321 upguages were sufficient- If this was during the holidays it'd be a whole other story in terms of rescue flights!

There are seats available for sale on the 321 flights. Adding a widebody designed to fly longer stage lengths would almost certainly not be more efficient. The 763 only fits 21 more passengers than a mainline 321, for instance. But probably costs a lot more to operate on a route of that length.
We already know that AC is short of widebody capacity (eg the Daytripper seasonal cancellation) so aircraft availability would be another concern.

My flight today was still a q400. Arrived only to find the SOE continued. Really wish they would have said so Tuesday night. Would have cancelled. I really thought they wouldn’t keep businesses closed for over a week.