As SooToday reported, this has been one of the most challenging winter weeks our airport has experienced in decades. Our President & CEO spoke with SooToday to provide updates and context on the severe weather that brought commercial operations to a halt.
“This is the first time in my 26 years that we've lost that many days,” said Terry Bos, President and CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corporation. “We've lost a day or two here and there from a storm, but never four days.”
Despite continuous plowing, sweeping, and de-icing efforts, the thick layer of ice and strong winds made clearing the runway extremely difficult. “The wind out there hasn't allowed us to effectively use chemical, which we would normally use to take the ice off the runway, but with the blowing — it just blows the chemical all over the place and does more damage than good,” Bos told SooToday. “It's been a battle against mother nature here for five days now.”
Even with commercial flights grounded, essential cargo and medevac flights continued using smaller aircraft capable of navigating the conditions. Other northern airports also faced disruptions earlier in the week, but the Sault continued to receive heavy snowfall. As Bos noted, “All four of us northern airports were closed for essentially Monday into Tuesday. Wednesday, in town, we barely got any snow, but at the airport we got buried from 5 a.m. until about 2 p.m.”
Our crews have been working nonstop. “We've been attacking it throughout,” Bos said. “We had all our guys on overtime. We had all our equipment in use. It wasn't for lack of effort … that it happened — it was just the worst ice I think we've seen in 20 years.”
Airlines are now working to restore service. Porter Airlines described the past several days as a “challenging operating environment” across eastern Canada and parts of the U.S. Today’s Porter flight will be the first to arrive since Dec. 29. “We are hopeful the weather and runway conditions will remain within limits to continue planned operations today. Regular scheduled service is planned to begin tomorrow,” a spokesperson told SooToday. “We know that this is an important travel period for many people and we are doing everything possible to keep them moving safely.”
Porter also noted that when flights are cancelled, customers are automatically “reprotected” onto the next available flight, and if that flight is more than 48 hours away, “best efforts” are made to rebook passengers on alternate airlines.
Air Canada Jazz is also resuming operations today, with added flights “to help move passengers who have felt the impact of these weather disruptions.” As Teri Udle, Director of Communications, said: “Passengers are advised to check the Air Canada Daily Travel Outlook on aircanada.com or the AC app for flight details before leaving for the airport. We do apologize to passengers and will be doing our utmost to get everyone to their destinations as soon as possible now that it is safe to do so.”
We appreciate the patience and understanding shown by our community during this extraordinary weather event. Safety remains our top priority, and our team will continue working tirelessly to keep operations running safely.