Over 550 flights cancelled and delayed at Toronto Pearson Airport amid major snowstorm

Travel plans hit a major snag for many as a massive snowstorm, expected to drop 40 centimetres of snow, caused hundreds of cancelled or delayed flights at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday.

Transit lines, businesses and institutions have already shut down in the city, and, in addition to local travel, flights to and from Toronto have also been severely impacted. 

Data from flight tracking agency Flightaware shows 554 cancellations and delays had been logged as of the time of publication Thursday afternoon. This figure includes 227 cancelled flights, both domestic and international, and 327 more flights delayed due to weather. 

Roughly 40 per cent of those impacted flights involve U.S. routes as midwest and northeast states like Michigan and New York battle similar winter weather conditions.

Pearson Airport sees approximately 1,100 flights take off and land each day, and today's weather woes mean a little over half of its daily flights are facing major disruptions.

The airport states on social media that teams of surface maintenance specialists have been working to clear five million square metres of runways, taxiways and aprons since the storm started.

We've seen another 2 cm of snow this morning, bringing the total snowfall to 14 cm at Toronto Pearson since the storm started.

Our surface maintenance specialists have been out in our state-of-the-art snowplows doing loops of the airfield to keep critical areas clear of snow.… pic.twitter.com/l83hL3Vwdm

— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) January 15, 2026

Several individuals travelling into the city to participate in the 2026 Toronto Pokémon Regional Championships running Jan. 16 - Jan 18 have chimed in saying that they may miss the event completely due to flight cancellations.

Toronto plans might be cooked

Flight got cancelled and was auto rebooked to a flight that arrives Sat morning at 11am

Can't change flight online and I've been on the phone on hold for 1h30m

I was feeling hella confident for this event too

— Serena 🌸 🔜 Toronto Regionals (@SerenaHarumi) January 15, 2026

I will not be attending Toronto Regionals anymore. My flight got cancelled and rescheduled to after the regional starts. Tried to rebook and there werent any available for tmrw. Decided its not worth the stress and just cancelled.

Hopefully @rk9 makes an exception for refunds.😓

— Joseph Mousaed (@JMoose177) January 15, 2026

Who up stressing over their flight to Toronto

— LWJosh91🔜🇨🇦6️⃣ (@LWJosh91) January 15, 2026

Another individual was hoping to fly to Edmonton to see the Oilers host the New York Islanders, but may instead be stuck watching the game on TV in Toronto.

Weather has my @AirCanada flight delayed in Toronto. May miss the #Isles v #LetsGoOilers game tn. Very sad.

— President Lee (@PrezAndersLee) January 15, 2026

One traveller with a delayed flight from Toronto said they were going to be stuck waiting 12 hours for their next available flight.

Flight got cancelled and I'm stuck at the Toronto airport for 12 hrs until my next flight because of the snow 😭 i genuinely want to cryyyy

— GetGoodBrandi (@GetGoodBrandi) January 15, 2026

One flyer, whose flight to Toronto was not disrupted, is preparing to face the weather head-on.

Currently on my flight to Toronto. Excited to experience a cold I've never felt before

— Matthew Clarkeus (@ClarkePTCG) January 15, 2026

The snowstorm in Toronto is expected to stretch late into Thursday evening.

"We will continue to put out updates on our X channel throughout the day," a rep at Pearson Airport tells blogTO.