Air Travel Recovers After Record Canadian Snowstorm

Air travel across eastern North America began recovering Tuesday from a record-breaking snowstorm that blanketed Central Canada over the weekend, as ground crews worked to clear runways and de-ice aircraft. The storm dumped an unprecedented 46 centimetres of snow on Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Sunday, marking January as the snowiest month in the city's records since 1937, according to Environment Canada.

At Pearson, the busiest airport in Canada, only 46 flights were cancelled by 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, representing about 11 percent of departures. That figure marked a significant improvement from Monday, when cancellations reached around 460, or 10 times the Tuesday total, as reported by aviation analytics firm Cirium. The rapid turnaround came thanks to round-the-clock efforts by airport staff and contractors, who plowed tarmacs and managed drifting snow amid gusting winds.

The disruptions extended beyond Toronto. In Quebec City and Halifax, about 10 percent of flights were cancelled Tuesday morning. St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, faced the highest rate in Canada at 22 percent, with fresh snow continuing to fall on the island and complicating operations....