YVR CEO admits passengers stuck on planes for hours was "unacceptable"

With significant snow and freezing rain headed for BC, Vancouver International Airport’s president and CEO admits changes and adjustments will be made to avoid repeated chaos.

On Tuesday, after the massive snowfall, passengers were stuck for hours on planes at YVR airport, waiting for a gate to open so they could be let out.

One person, Seham Asfar told Daily Hive she waited for 11 hours in a plane sitting on the tarmac.

Tamara Vrooman with YVR admitted to the media Thursday that when she heard similar stories of long waits on aircraft, she agreed it was “totally unacceptable.”

“You can imagine being on a 16-hour flight from somewhere like Manila and then imagine what it would be like to be several hours on that aircraft,” she said. 

So, Vrooman said the airport has adjusted its plans and protocols in collaboration with its airline customers. 

You might also like:
• "It's a mess here": YVR passenger stuck in plane for 11 hours on tarmac
• Severe turbulence on Hawaii flight leaves at least 36 passengers injured (VIDEOS/PHOTOS)
• Drivers warned to stay off roads as extreme weather could cause highway closures

To ensure people are not held on planes, YVR has worked with its airline partners “to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 

“We had no holds on aircraft and we will not tolerate and do not anticipate any more holds on that.”

She said she is confident in YVR’s preparations but added, “as you know, the province of British Columbia has just issued notice advising people of the severe weather coming and so we all need to be prepared.”

YVR has reinforced its snow removal practices and de-icing practices, which Vrooman said worked well earlier this week. However, snow accumulation made these steps harder to achieve and led to congestion and unprecedented lineups. 

“That is the same thing that happens when we’re out shovelling our walk and it’s snowing. By the time you get to the end of it, you have to go back to the beginning because the snow has accumulated. That’s exactly what happened on our aircraft.”

Vrooman added that on Thursday YVR saw 100 cancelled flights out of 660 flights. 

“So the vast majority of flights have been departing on schedule sometimes with short 15-, 20-minute delays but have been departing. But we are spending all of our time readying ourselves for the severe weather that we understand is in the forecast this evening and into tomorrow.”