Turmoil at YYT as more St. John's flights cancelled, delayed

The authority that runs St. John's International Airport said dozens of flight cancellations over the last few days is a result of poor weather and ongoing runway renovations, and that work should be completed sometime next week.

Dozens of arrival and departure flights were highlighted in red Thursday morning, as heavy fog and runway construction work combined to wreak havoc on flight schedules at the airport for the second day in a row.

The airport has been plagued by similar delays since last weekend.

Due to the renovations this summer, the airport's primary runway is closed and the secondary runway cannot accommodate ordinary traffic when there is low-visibility weather. 

As part of a major upgrade, the airport authority is installing a new runway system, which it says will allow 700 more flights to operate on schedule in 2016, regardless of fog.

But weather in recent days has meant numerous problems. 

Flights arriving to and departing from Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Newark and other cities were affected throughout the morning, and it is still unclear if afternoon flights will also be delayed and cancelled.

The St. John's region is still dealing with the aftermath of post-tropical storm Claudette, which brought humidity and foggy weather beyond what many pilots were comfortable with given the renovation work on the airports runways.

On Wednesday, many passengers were being bused to and from Gander in central Newfoundland so they could catch flights out of the province. The airport authority said since 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday a total of 35 arriving flights were cancelled.

In a statement released at noon Thursday, the airport said even though conditions did improve Wednesday evening, airlines had already made the decision to cancel flights based on the predicated forecast. The statement went on to say that conditions look "favourable" for the remainder of Thursday and Friday.

Passenger patience wearing thin

The headaches this week at the airport has been especially trying on Judy Ryan of St. John's.

Ryan was vacationing for three weeks with her partner and four children when they tried to catch a flight from Ottawa back to St. John's.

Whoever is the head of the airport should be fired - Judy Ryan

Six days later they are in Halifax, still trying to make it home — with little help from their carrier Air Canada.

"They said it was weather related when in actual fact the weather was fine in Newfoundland," she told CBC's On the Go.

"In actual fact it's not weather, the problem is now there's half a runway, they only have one way to land their planes."

She said both she and her partner have missed a full week of work and have spent $5,400 on extra hotels, meals and rental cars while they wait to get back to Newfoundland.

Ryan finally was put on a flight with just two of her kids on Thursday, but her partner and other two kids could be stuck in Halifax for another two days before more seats are available.

She feels it's unreasonable to expect people to bear those kinds of financial and logistical burdens.

"Whoever is the head of the airport should be fired," she said.

"They should have forseen this in a high-peak season in Newfoundland. It's just because they didn't put on enough flights, they didn't divert the planes when they should have and arranged bus loads of people coming in."