Due to persistent cold weather and a snowstorm hitting Toronto Pearson International Airport, passengers onboard an inbound Emirates flight found themselves landing safely, but stuck on the aircraft for up to three hours before the plane could arrive at the gate. The Airbus A380, had arrived in Toronto after its over 13-hour journey from Dubai, practically on time.

Toronto had faced more than 12 cm (4.7 inches) of snow overnight as of 9:00 am local time that day, with traffic management initiatives enforced to ensure the safe arrival and departure of aircraft. Due to this, and what could only be presumed as limited gate availability, meant that there was no gate free that could handle the double decker, forcing the iconic A380 to remain idle on the apron until it could safely get to a suitable gate.

Waiting Three Hours & 18 Minutes

Credit: Shutterstock

As YYZground crews worked their way through the snow, this meant that the passengers and crew onboard the Emirates flight were forced to sit on board until gate availability allowed for the flight to deplane. Toronto has just two gates that are capable of accommodating the A380, with a third that is only suitable in emergencies.

Tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the flight, operating as EK241 had departed from Dubai International Airport (DXB) on Thursday, January 15 at 4:08 am, 38 minutes behind its initial departure time of 3:30 am. The flight made the journey across the Polar route, before descending across Canada and into Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), landing at 8:57 am local time (seven minutes after its planned arrival time of 8:50 am).

While the flight effectively departed and arrived without major incident, passengers had hoped to disembark relatively quickly after the 13-hour and 49-minute flight. Unfortunately, due to gate availability, the aircraft remaining stranded without the possibility of passengers deplaning for another three hours and 18 minutes, meaning the arrival to the gate didn’t come until 12:15 pm.

Simple Flying reached out to Emirates for comment, and we will update you when we receive a response.

Snow Clearing Operations In Full Force

Credit: Shutterstock

Canadian cities and airports are used to dealing with snow throughout their cold, harsh winters. When there are large amount of snowfall, it can be expected that the airport will experience some delays. Airfield operations were in full force on the morning of this aircraft’s arrival, working around the clock to clear the fallen snow.

During this time, the airport had advised arriving and departing passengers to experience some delays, and to check with their airline for any important updates. Not only do airports in these climates need to work through recent snowfall, but they also need to de-ice aircraft.

It appears that Emirates was not the only flight that experienced such a delay, with AC841 from Frankfurt Airport to Toronto reported by a passenger on X that the Airbus A330-300 aircraft remained stranded for three hours before it could safely arrive at the gate. Departures were also experiencing delays, with some passengers reporting on X that their flights were delayed for more than five hours.

Related

Emirates Airbus A380 Makes Rare Diversion To Ghana After Smoke Indication

An abundance of caution leads to a rare sight as one of the world’s largest commercial airplanes touches down in an unlikely destination.

Aircraft Affected

Credit: Shutterstock

The Emirates aircraft at the centre of this flight, according to Flightradar24 was 12.3 year old A6-EEQ. The plane took its first test flight under French Airbus registration F-WWAG on October 8, 2013. It was subsequently delivered to EK on February 14, 2014, and carries the serial number 141 and HEX code 896190.

Powered by four GP7270 Engine Alliance (a high-bypass turbofan engine), the plane is configured to carry up to 489 passengers across three classes of service, as detailed below with data from ch-aviation:

The returning flight EK242, was also subsequently delayed on departure from Toronto, with the service scheduled to depart at 1:55 pm local time, but only leaving the gate at 4:40 pm. The aircraft remains in the air at the time of writing, however was expected to arrive at 11:40 am, and is now scheduled to touchdown in the much warmer temperatures of Dubai at 1:27 pm.