Passengers still stranded at Montreal airport after winter storms, Toronto plane crash

Hundreds of passengers at Montreal’s Trudeau airport are still trying to get to their destination, after bad weather and a plane crash in Toronto caused a chain reaction of delays and cancellations.

Passengers on a Porter Airlines flight from Montreal to Calgary faced a series of delays yesterday before their flight was cancelled later that night.

Passenger Paul DeGroot said that since the delay was caused by weather, the airline didn’t give them any food or hotel vouchers.

“I didn’t get any fare for the hotel or nothing, so I slept on some tile, laid my sweater down,” he said. “I kind of got a sore back now.”

He said since Porter doesn’t have any flights to Calgary for days, he’s had to look at other flights available, but none of them is cheap.

“Today, they’re like $3,000, and tomorrow there are some for $1,500,” DeGroot added.

Henry Nwachukwu was also booked on the same cancelled Porter flight to Calgary. His flight originated from Doha, and he said he was only supposed to transfer flights in Montreal.

He said it’s been challenging to figure out what to do in a city where he knows no one.

“Now, I have to go find a hotel that I’m going to stay and come back 20th,” he said.

CTV News contacted Porter Airlines about the delay but the company did not respond.

Other stranded passengers trying to book flights home were in Montreal due to their flights being rerouted from Toronto after a Delta plane crashed at Pearson airport.

Lucas Redon and his girlfriend were travelling from Costa Rica to Paris via Toronto when they were rerouted to Montreal.

“We missed our connection to Paris and yesterday evening was a complete mess in the airport with lots of thing rerouted and, people everywhere,” he said.

They said the only way they can rebook their flights is on the phone and it takes hours of waiting.

Despite some of the major disruptions over the last few days, airport officials said things were getting back on track and estimated only 11 per cent of flights were delayed or cancelled today.

Dan Altneu said he and his daughter spent last night in a hotel after their flight to Chicago was cancelled.

Despite having a good ski vacation in Mont Tremblant they’re eager to get home.

“We’ve been here since about 6:30 in the morning trying to get out,” he said. “So we’re hanging out today. Otherwise, we’ll have to stay in a hotel again tonight. Probably.”