Canadian flights resume after FAA shutdown; weekend disruptions continue

Canadian travellers faced further cancellations Saturday (Nov. 14) as airlines worked to restore schedules following Friday’s nationwide U.S. ground stop, while American officials pointed to a router problem during telecommunications maintenance as the preliminary explanation.

Toronto Pearson confirmed U.S.-bound flights had resumed, but warned passengers to expect continuing delays and cancellations and check with their airline before leaving for the airport.

At 11:48 a.m. ET Saturday, FlightAware listed 92 cancellations and 97 delays at Pearson across all routes. Of those, 62 cancellations and 33 delays involved flights to or from the United States.

The tracker recorded 204 cancellations at Pearson on Friday, including 152 involving U.S. services. The figures represent daily totals, rather than disruptions individually confirmed as caused by the FAA outage.

The disruption also reached beyond transborder travel, affecting Canadian vacation flights that normally cross U.S. airspace.

Airlines work through recovery

WestJet said Friday evening it was preparing to restore normal operations over the following 48 hours after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its ground stop. A flexible change and cancellation policy remains in place.

Its advisory covers eligible travel Nov. 13–15 at listed U.S., Mexican, Caribbean and Costa Rican destinations. Passengers who booked through a travel advisor or another third party are directed to contact their booking provider for assistance.

Air Canada, which announced on social media that it was cancelling its remaining U.S. flights Friday evening, also warned that Caribbean and South American services transiting U.S. airspace could be affected.

The airline’s subsequent update says restoring operations will take time. Its travel outlook offers penalty-free changes on affected flights, subject to availability, while customers with Air Canada Vacations bookings are directed to contact the vacation company.

Porter Airlines, in a Friday advisory, warned of disruption throughout the weekend and longer call-centre waits. The carrier offered complimentary moves across its network where space permits, with affected passengers able to manage their itineraries online or through its app.

“Patience is the name of the game”

Lindsay Pearlman, president of Travel Leaders Network, was experiencing the disruption firsthand Saturday while waiting for his flight home from Fort Lauderdale.

“Patience is the name of the game. Our flight is delayed an hour but the aircraft is here,” Pearlman told PAX by email.

Pearlman said TLN had been providing members with consistent updates. From his perspective, Canadian flights appeared to be experiencing delays, while U.S. domestic services faced significant cancellations as airlines realigned aircraft and crews.

“The airport is packed but people seem to be understanding,” he said.

Advisors manage ripple effects beyond the U.S.

For Jakki Prince of Prince Adventures, based in Guelph, Ont., the disruption was creating uncertainty for clients already travelling in South America.

Prince told PAX that two couples flying from Lima, Peru, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, faced a four-hour delay involving an aircraft coming from the United States. They were scheduled to continue to Baltra the following day for a luxury Galapagos expedition.

“Should all go well tonight, and they land delayed, all will be fine,” Prince said on Saturday.

A longer delay or cancellation, however, could jeopardize their onward plans.

“A bit of walking on eggshells right now,” she said.

Prince said most other issues had been straightforward to manage, while some clients already away were unconcerned. She was also monitoring an upcoming itinerary for American clients travelling through Doha to Vietnam on Nov. 19.

Router problem under investigation

At a Saturday media briefing, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said officials believed the disruption began during maintenance at a remote FAA location, where contractor L3Harris was switching telecommunications connections from copper to fibre.

Duffy said a router began generating excessive connection attempts, affecting communications and radar feeds elsewhere in the system. Investigators were still determining whether the problem involved installation error or faulty equipment.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said officials imposed the ground stop to reduce pressure on the system while they investigated the spreading instability. He stressed that facilities had not completely lost their systems.

Officials said the root-cause investigation remained underway and that they did not believe a cyberattack was responsible.

Canadian systems remained operational

NAV CANADA said on social media that its systems were operating normally throughout the disruption. It introduced traffic-management measures at Pearson, Montréal-Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver to manage traffic volumes, later announcing those measures had been lifted.

Pearson said in its own social updates that it increased staffing to assist affected passengers and implemented an aircraft parking plan. Domestic and international services not requiring transit through U.S. airspace continued operating.

For passengers, the consequences included abandoned plans and missed commitments.

The Canadian Press reported that Brenda Zhou, travelling with her daughter to a soccer identification camp in Miami, said U.S. customs processing at Pearson stopped after they had begun their departure procedures. They were subsequently rebooked through Tampa for Saturday evening, meaning her daughter would miss a Saturday morning session.

For travel advisors assisting affected clients, the immediate task is checking replacement flights against onward connections, cruise departures and other booked arrangements. Airline flexibility policies differ, and travellers should confirm the options attached to their booking before making changes.

Don't miss a single travel story:  subscribe to PAX  today!   Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.