Connecting through YYZ in winter
 

I currently have a planned trip from the US via YYZ to HKG (it is an award trip and thus we are limited in routing optinos). We are scheduled to land in YYZ at 5:40 p.m. on 12/31 and have the flight out at 1:30 a.m. on 1/1.

Of course, I am concerned about potential weather issues. While I know that nobody can predict whether a storm might occur, I'd like to gather as much information as I can before deciding how far to go to arrange an alternate route (including additional money and losing a few days on vacation).

Is YYZ well equipped to handle at least light-moderate snowfall? Are very early morning/late night flights more likely to be delayed/cancelled because of fewer people available to clear snow, or less likely because of fewer competing flights? Given that it's a transcontinental flight with a large plane, does that make it any more/less likely to be delayed/cancelled?

Again I am not looking to exclude the possibility of a bad snowstorm preventing even flying to YYZ, or some kind of 2012 cataclysmic event... But if this was ORD I would reroute without even thinking about it. Ideally we fly in on a nice clear day, go through customs, have dinner in the city, and return later for our flight. But I have never been to YYZ or even eastern Canada so I have no idea what usually happens and how it's handled.

Thanks in advance!

There is no need to worry about that, Canadian airports are fully equipped to handle Canadian winters. You're worrying too much IMO.

Enjoy your trip

Yes, it snows in Canada in the winters. The airports and flights still operate as scheduled. I fly all the time in the winter, and during light to moderate snowfalls, planes still take off and land.


No, early morning/late night flights do not have a higher chance of being delayed or cancelled. The airport works 24/7. Simply put, if the worst of the storm is overnight, then yes, those flights will be affected.

The size of your plane or its destination also has nothing to do with weather-related delays. You will have to wait in line with all the other planes to get deiced, and then your on your way.

Picture being in JFK or ORD. It's handled the same way, and the winters are the same in both places.
Have a good trip, and enjoy your New Year's Eve at YYZ.:)


PS: Are you from the south by any chance? My colleagues from ATL are also worried about flying into Canada during the winters.

Thanks for the advice -- I will calm down some. My first trip to the east coast (Boston) after living in California my whole life, I was stranded there for 2 nights because of a storm. BUT I certainly hope things are handled better than at ORD (I suspect they are). After being delayed or cancelled there about 5 of 7 times I now refuse to transfer through that airport and try to avoid flying out of it as much as possible.

Edit: just noticed your post, yes I am currently living in San Diego. We almost always only get delays because of bad weather in other cities. Of course if we ever got even a tiny bit of snow it might shut down the airport for a week.

You'll be alright! I understand why your a worried. I would be the same if after living all my life in a warm climate, winter greets me with a 2 day delay.

Honestly its all luck flying in the winter. Like I said, most flights take off and land on time when its snowing. The snow isn't as much of a problem (unless of course its heavy snow) as visibility is.

Haha it probably would. My wife and I go to Florida every winter, and this winter out of all of them has been very cold over there. They shut down US1 due to ice. It wasn't so funny then, but now we look back and laugh about it.

I work in the hospital (radiology) and every time there's even a little rain here in San Diego we know it will be a busy day/night because of car accidents. Others here always think it's ridiculous but we just don't get any practice driving on wet roads!

I knew it was all luck but it sounds like at least YYZ has a good plan in place (read an article about them having the most snow clearing bulldozer type things in North America). I'll still prefer a direct flight out of LAX but barring any good award ticket availability opening up I guess we'll be visiting Toronto for at least a few hours, hopefully not too much more! (this time). Last time we were in Vancouver/Whistler we did meet some nice people from Toronto and definitely will try to make a more extended visit at some point, probably not in the winter though.

Unfortunately, during the first and second snowfalls of the year, it's pretty much the same here in regards to accidents.

If you want to stay a longer period of time, definitely come in the summer. Actually, between May-September you can bank on good weather. April and October are generally nice months as well, but colder.
January and February are the worst. The days are short, and its very cold. That's the time we should all be in SoCal or FL in the sunshine :)

Yeah, one thing I noticed about living in San Diego for the last 5 years is that it makes choosing a vacation spot difficult -- almost all the time you are choosing a place with worse weather. Usually we make our longer trips to cold weather resorts like Utah, Colorado, or Whistler. It just happens that a friend of mine is getting married in Thailand early January and I hear the weather in Thailand is great during January.

I hear great things about Toronto -- the girlfriend actually likes visiting the cold weather cities (doesnt like getting stuck in an airport, though) and I hear it is a very diverse and interesting place. Definitely somewhere we'll visit soon maybe on some east coast trip, or hopefully a conference will be held there or something.

There are plenty of cancellations and delays in the winter not only because of an event at the airport you are at but also at other airports where there are delays that prevent inbound aircraft for your flight from arriving. If you are on Air Canada, then even if there is a delay of the inbound aircraft there are usually spares on the ground and substitutions can be made that provide an alternative. If it is an airline based elsewhere, then you have to wait for the scheduled flight to arrive, which may involve a longer delay. There are also outbound delays due to de-icing. You won't know until the day you travel what the real story will be. Weather forecasts are usually wrong.

Understood. Part of the reason ORD is so bad is because of issues like this. I am less concerned about the issues at other airports because my flights are direct from LAX and the outbound aircraft should be coming from Asia. It's the landing and leaving YYZ that had me most concerned, which seems is valid but perhaps a bit overblown. If I don't get a more optimal route I guess we will just have to plan for potentially having to stay in Toronto for a couple days. Maybe we will plan a weekend stopover in JFK or YYZ on the way back and make the most of our winter clothing.

As B1 stated, the weather forecasts are usually wrong. You only find out about delays the day of.

However, look at it this way. Your first time coming to snowy Canada, it will not be so mean to you as to strand you for a few days. The years vary, but this Christmas season was quite nice. We had one snowstorm Dec15 (and yes, my plane took off that evening lol), and then one really bad storm in February, where flights were for the most part cancelled. Luckily I was home then. Think positive, and also, December isn't really that cold of a month. I may be too Canadian lol, but January and February are much worse.

It sounds like you are flying AA LAX-YYZ which is a 738 and generally on-time; blizzards that close YYZ do happen, but less than 1 day per year. Still a bit tiring routing, and from a comfort standpoint doing 1 night hotel in YYZ would be much better as well as removing the mis-connect risk. But if you consider ORD to be too high risk, then YYZ is not for you (it has the same delay percentages as ORD, maybe slightly better due to less lake-effect snow ... you have to go to BUF for that). LAX-HKG is a much nicer flight, and even in F flying LAX-YYZ-HKG will not be enjoyable after the 15 hour mark.

It's a possibility, YYZ has shut down due to snow before but it's rare and unpredictable due to the topography (lake effect snow etc.). I wouldn't sweat it, the chance of it happening to you is remote and there's nothing you can do anyway. In fact thunderstorms are more of a nuisance there in the summer months.

Are you sure there isn't a better award route available ? An East transcon to a transpac is a bit of an epic.

There are other routes available now, but sacrifice at least a few days at our destination (which on a 10-12 day trip is significant). I think for now, we will take the risk of getting there early at the cost of some extra flying, and hope that something else opens up.

You'll be fine. I remember a few years back we had a YYZ-MCO flight on Christmas day that took off in a snowstorm with no problems. We might have been lucky but they have the equipment to handle it. In february I had a flight BUF-PHL which also took off in a snowstorm and even though I don't get jumpy on planes I had to say a few prayers. Scariest flight of my life.