138 flights were cancelled due to heavy fog at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario

The heavy fog that blanketed Mississauga and much of the GTA all day Wednesday forced the cancellation of 138 flights into and out of Pearson Airport.

Pearson officials said on social media this afternoon that airlines cancelled 70 scheduled arrivals and another 68 departures yesterday “directly because of the weather.”

A number of those cancellations “resulted in some passengers, unfortunately, missing their connecting flights,” they added.

“The dense fog that blanketed the GTA yesterday, including here at the airport, meant precautions were taken to ensure the safety of all passengers and airline crews,” Pearson officials said in a post to X (formerly Twitter). “Scheduled flights were impacted throughout the day as NAV Canada grounded some flights to prioritize safety during challenging weather conditions. In total, airlines cancelled 70 arrivals and 68 departures directly because of the weather, and some of those cancellations resulted in some passengers, unfortunately, missing their connecting flights.

“We also saw 13 diversions, five of which were rerouted to Toronto Pearson later in the day. When winter weather comes, we work closely with all our partners to keep passengers moving as quickly as possible.”

Over the last two weeks, it’s been large amounts of snow and high winds that have, at times, impacted flights both into and out of Pearson.

But it was the heavy fog that prevented planes from safely getting into the skies on Wednesday.

“Dense fog has created low visibility at Toronto Pearson and Nav Canada has temporarily grounded some flights,” airport officials said on social media Wednesday.

“It’s been a mixed bag of winter weather at Toronto Pearson this week, from cold weather to snow squalls and now fog,” the Wednesday post continued. “On days like today, air traffic controllers regularly assess visibility and adjust hourly arrival rates to maintain safe operations.”