Winter weather to blame for four-day disruption at Sault Airport

A holiday storm with high winds and ice crippled the Sault Ste. Marie airport for four days, cancelling 50 flights. Angela Gemmill has more.

Operations are getting back to normal at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport after severe winter weather wreaked havoc on Holiday travel plans.

The storm that hit northeastern Ontario Dec. 28-29 caused a four-day upheaval for travellers at the airport.

“We had all our equipment out. We had guys (working) overtime, working almost around the clock. So, it wasn’t for lack of effort, I can tell you that,” said Terry Bos, president and CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Airport.

Bos said high winds prevented crews from spraying the liquid chemical to de-ice runways and airplanes.

Because salt is too corrosive, a combination of sand and sweepers are used to clear the ice. The delays meant about 50 flights in four days were cancelled, affecting about 500 passengers.

Out of the four airports in the northeast, Bos said the Sault was hit hardest.

“My counterparts sent me the weather updates where Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay all had 20 kilometres visibility, and we had 200 metres,” he said.

Lake effect snow

“We were getting it way worse than everybody almost every day last week.”

The airport’s location near water means it gets “lake effect snow,” Bos added.

“It really hampers us more than the rest. But we have a team that can handle it, it’s just this time, the ice kind of got above us.”

In addition to the Sault, Timmins received 60 centimetres of snow last week.

David Dayment, manager of the Timmins Victor M Power Airport, said despite the snow, flights were only affected for one day.

That’s because they didn’t see the same level of ice or wind as their counterparts in the Sault.

“We have an equivalent number of people and equipment and we all keep going through the (statutory holidays),” said Dayment.

“They were still working through Christmas and Boxing Day and right into that storm and through New Year’s Day. All my crews did a really good job to keep things open.”

“I’ve been here 16 years, and the locals here tell me they haven’t seen anything like this in 50 years,” he added.

Bos and Dayment said they’re still removing snow and the challenge now is to find space to put snow from last week’s storm -- and any more that will fall this winter.