Travellers stuck at YVR question call to cancel flights due to snow

More than 200 flights were cancelled this weekend at Vancouver International Airport and some impacted travellers are questioning the move.

On Saturday YVR announced it was pre-emptively cancelling roughly 15 per cent of flights in anticipation of issues due to incoming snow. By Sunday morning, as snow began melting away and turned to slush on roads and sidewalks across the Lower Mainland, an update from the airport urged people with travel plans to check for delays or cancellations.

Nicole Bitz and her brother Dwight had a flight booked to Kelowna Sunday morning and the pair were perplexed when they saw it was called off.

“I think it was maybe a bit premature. There wasn’t really that much snow and then it got pretty sunny afterwards. It all melted anyway," Nicole told CTV News.

"I was sitting over near the windows earlier and there’s not even any snow on the ground anymore."

In total, the two were facing a delay of 17 hours, which they planned to spend hunkered down in the airport with their phones and snacks to pass the time.

“They have to have a little bit of better protocols in place." said Dwight.

“About an hour after [our scheduled] flight, I don’t know if there’s any snow left on the ground. Probably could have postponed it for an hour or two and we would’ve been fine."

The impact of the overnight snow means the potential remains for some delays and additional schedule adjustments for today. We advise passengers to please check the latest flight information with their airline or on https://t.co/1FdVwVJYyO before coming to the airport. pic.twitter.com/wXGCfd7jll

— YVR (@yvrairport) February 26, 2023

But a spokesperson for the airport authority said the decision was well thought out and calculated according to the information that was available about forecasted conditions. .

“The planning that you go through is based on probabilities of the forecast," said Mike McNaney, vice-president and chief external affairs officer.

"There’s a lot of variables that go into it. So you’re always going back-and-forth and you certainly don’t take the decisions lightly because you recognize you're cancelling flights and changing schedules, but overall, you’re working to ensure that the greatest number of flights that can be operated can be done safely."

As of Sunday afternoon, a weather advisory was no longer live on YVR's website and the airport spokesperson said it was operating at 90 per cent of scheduled capacity.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the storm brought 11 centimetres of snowfall to YVR by 8 a.m. Sunday.