YVR Airport preparing its operations for major snowfall this weekend

Snow and ice impacting operations at Vancouver International Airport, December 2022. (Vancouver International Airport)

Just over two months after snowfall wreaked havoc at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) over the busy period leading up to Christmas, airport officials have stated they are working to prepare for this weekend’s forecasted severe winter weather conditions.

Heavy snowfall is expected to fall in Metro Vancouver starting Saturday mid-afternoon and continuing through Sunday, with the airport authority’s weather models showing between 12 cm and 20 cm will fall at YVR over this period.

You might also like:

“We are monitoring weather closely and working with airlines and our many partners to ensure passengers and planes get on their way as quickly and safely as possible,” reads a bulletin issued Friday.

“Our equipment and crews are ready. Our de-icing facility is fully operational. Airlines have been asked to ensure full towing capacity during the snow event so that empty aircraft are not stuck at gates preventing other planes from being able to de-plane passengers.”

They are also working to ensure the ability to modify how planes are gated to “optimize operations if necessary and keep passengers moving.”

This is the first major winter weather operations test for YVR following the severe December 2022 disruptions that affected thousands of travellers.

At the time, Daily Hive reported passengers were stuck in planes on the tarmac for as long as 11 hours, thousands of travellers were stranded at the terminal building due to numerous cancelled flights, and an international arrivals ban was put in place for two days to reduce congestion on the airfield. It took YVR over a week to recover and catch up from the challenging situation, which was caused by the inability to de-ice rapidly falling snow on aircraft, an unplowed tarmac, frozen jet bridges, and immobilized airside support vehicles.

Last month, the airport authority announced a number of initiatives to learn from the challenges and implement new operational strategies, including contracting third party consultants to conduct a review.

For this weekend, YVR is asking travellers to check the status of their flight on the websites of the airport or their airline before coming to the airport. Unlike the prolonged sub-zero conditions last December, the forecast for this weekend calls for a quick transition from heavy snowfall to above freezing temperatures and rainfall on Sunday.

TransLink also stated on Friday it is making necessary preparations on its public transit system for snowfall, including calling in extra staff, coordinating with municipal governments on clearing snow on priority roads, preparing special trucks to spread anti-icing solution on trolley wires, and replacing the 60-ft articulated buses with 40-ft conventional buses for their better ability to maneuver on steep, slippery areas.

As usual for snowfall operations, trains on the Millennium Line will also be coupled into four-car trains to increase capacity, and SkyTrain attendants may be deployed to man the front of each train on both the Expo and Millennium lines.

Environment Canada anticipates Metro Vancouver will see between 15 cm and 25 cm of snow, with local amounts up to 35 cm, by Sunday. It has issued a snowfall warning for the Lower Mainland.

You might also like: