Severe weather, Delta crash disrupt air shipments in US and Canada

Parcel and air cargo customers are experiencing shipping delays in parts of North America because of winter storms and Monday’s crash of a Delta Air Lines regional jet at the Toronto airport.

Adverse weather conditions disrupted flight activity at the FedEx (NYSE: FDX) global air hub in Memphis, Tennessee, and some customers could experience delivery delays on Wednesday, the company said in a service alert posted online. FedEx does not provide refunds or credits under its money-back-guarantee program when it declares a National Service Disruption.

Several inches of snow and sleet fell across the mid-South, including Memphis, Tuesday night. Bitterly cold weather is forecast to continue in the region through Friday, according to weather reports.

FedEx earlier this week notified customers of possible delays related to the heavy flooding in Kentucky.

The snowstorm also reached Louisville, Kentucky, home to UPS’ (NYSE: UPS) main air hub. The express delivery and logistics giant said scheduled delivery times for a limited number of air and international packages may be affected by operational disruptions at the Worldport facility. 

Further north, Toronto Pearson International Airport has closed two runways, one of which is the busiest runway in Canada, resulting in reduced flight capacity as it recovers from the Delta crash and three major snowstorms last week. Two other runways are open to traffic, according to airport duty manager Jake Keating. 

The airport is limiting the number of departures it will allow throughout the day to ensure operations aren’t overwhelmed and aircraft aren’t stuck on the airfield waiting for gates. And Nav Canada, the air traffic control manager, is also limiting arrivals, he said on the Toronto morning show “CP24.”

About 950 flights are scheduled to arrive and depart on Wednesday at Toronto Pearson. As of 7 a.m., about 5.5% of flights had been canceled, the airport said on X.

Investigators say the Delta CRJ-900 jet that flipped over will remain on the runway for 48 hours while they continue to gather information about the cause of the accident. After the aircraft is removed from the runway, the airport will still need to conduct inspections to make sure the runway and equipment are not damaged before it can be opened to commercial traffic, Keating said.

The severe weather has made life challenging for airlines operating in eastern Canada.

Air Canada (TSX: AC) on Tuesday said it has canceled nearly 1,300 flights over the past six days, but the flight limitations at its Toronto hub are slowing the recovery. 

“We anticipate it may take several more days, depending on the weather, to return to fully normal operations,” it said in a news release.

The airline’s cargo division, which operates six Boeing 767-300 freighters and manages shipments carried on passenger aircraft, separately said shipments are pushed back because of flight delays, diversions and cancellations to and from Toronto.

“Given the impact of the weather events in Toronto and Montreal, as well as the temporary runway closure in Toronto as a result of Monday’s incident, there has been a knock-on effect to our cargo operations, but it is too soon to determine the extent of the impact as it remains a fluid situation,” Air Canada said in a statement provided to FreightWaves.

Canadian all-cargo operator Cargojet (TSX: CJT), which operates a hub in Hamilton, Ontario, near Toronto, has not experienced any operational impact from recent weather events, spokeswoman Courtney Ilola said via email. She did not address whether some shipments transferred by international carriers to Cargojet in Toronto for onward transport in its domestic network could be delayed.

The carrier handled record volumes during the holiday peak season while dealing with challenging weather conditions, according to fourth-quarter results published on Tuesday. 

Click here for more FreightWaves stories by Eric Kulisch.

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