Most incoming and outgoing flights from the Edmonton International Airport on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and noon were delayed due to low-lying fog and “ongoing low visibility.”
Travellers were being asked to check their flight status online at flyeia.com and with their airline before heading out.
“Safety and security are our top priorities, and ongoing low visibility at YEG due to low-lying fog is affecting arriving and departing flights,” airport spokesperson Megan Hall told Global News at noon on Tuesday.
“We will continue to monitor the situation, work with our airline and aviation partners and resume flight activity as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Hall said there were a total of 34 cancelled departures on Tuesday due to weather conditions — 31 were domestic/international and three were U.S. flights.
She said the Edmonton airport was fully operational as of Wednesday morning “as the fog has lifted.” However, there may still be impacted flights due to “the ripple effects of the weather situation over the past couple of days.”
As of 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, there were 15 cancellations, with nine recovery flights added. Two of those cancellations were U.S. departures (Phoenix and Denver) and one U.S. arrival (Phoenix) due to an Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outage and ripple effects.
The remainder of the cancellations Wednesday were domestic/international and due to “the bad weather over the last couple of days.”
Derek Thompson was on his way to Palm Springs for an international pinball tournament.
His Tuesday WestJet flight was delayed due to fog, then the passengers waited on the airplane for about an hour and a half, then deplaned and waited in the terminal for about an hour until the flight was eventually cancelled, he said.
“I’m heading off to Vancouver tonight because I’m afraid tomorrow the fog will be here again and my flight will be cancelled. So we’re heading to Vancouver tonight. We’re going to do an overnight there and then we’re going to take a flight from Vancouver to Palm Springs.”
Thompson believes WestJet will compensate him for some of this.
“We believe there’s supposed to be cancellation insurance for that, so WestJet hopefully will be able to go ahead and provide us a hotel and a meal when we get to Vancouver, but nothing is guaranteed until we talk to them in Vancouver.”
The trip has been planned for a long time, but he’s taking all the changes in stride. Thompson booked his trip with a day’s buffer before the tournament starts.
“You take your chances when you come in… They’re trying their best. There’s just a lot of problems in the whole network right now. There needs to be work done to fix that.”
According to the EIA’s website, as of 12:10 p.m., only about two of the 20 scheduled departures actually left from the airport on time — the rest were delayed. In terms of Tuesday morning’s arrivals, all 10 of the scheduled flights were either delayed or cancelled.
Hall said the airport had 14 flights depart Tuesday morning before the fog impact began.
In a message on Twitter at about 1 p.m., the airport said operations returned to normal, “and flights are now regularly departing and arriving once again.”
As of about 3 p.m., about 60 flights had been delayed due to weather conditions and 16 flights had been cancelled, “with a few more currently planned throughout the evening.”
The Edmonton airport did not have any arrivals until 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Hall said.
There were no other operational impacts at the airport, she added.
Taylor Lemieux drove from Saskatchewan to Edmonton, stayed overnight in Edmonton, expecting to flight to Mazatlan Tuesday morning with Swoop.
“Cancelled last minute with no rebooking of hotels, no rebooking of vehicles or accommodation or anything,” he said.
“They told us to get your bags and get lost, basically.
“Other flights are flying out. There’s been other flights to Mexico that have left too.”
Since he’s from out of town, the delay will cost him.
“It’ll cost us at least $1,000 in hotel rooms, tours we have booked, our Airbnb we have booked for the night — too much,” Lemieux said.
Kelly McCabe was also supposed to fly out to Mazatlán Tuesday morning on Swoop.
“It’s really foggy… and all the planes have gotten fogged in for the last three, four hours.
“It got delayed and delayed, and we saw other flights leaving and then all of a sudden, Swoop said, ‘No, we’re going to cancel.’
“They’re offering us a rescue flight that is taking off tomorrow morning instead of today at 11 a.m. They’re doing the best they can,” McCabe said. “Nobody created the fog, so everybody should just chill and hopefully have a good flight tomorrow.”
Silvio Pino was also scheduled on that flight to Mexico.
“For me, I live in Edmonton, it’s not a big problem. What about people who do not live in Edmonton or are catching a connecting flight? It’s going to cost them a lot of money.”
Pino said the airline hasn’t told them much.
“Just: ‘Go home, come back tomorrow. You’re on your own.'”
While he understands it’s just an inconvenience, Pino is frustrated that they’ve spent six hours at the airport and essentially wasted the day.
“I’m paying for the condo starting today… We have friends waiting for us in Mazatlán, family.”
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