Heavy weather Delta crash disrupted aviation cargo in the United States and Canada

Parcel and air cargo clients in North America are suffering delivery delays due to winter storms and a Delta Air Lines regional plane accident at Toronto International Airport on Monday.

Adverse weather conditions hampered aircraft operations at FedEx’s (NYSE: FDX) global air hub in Memphis, Tennessee, and some customers may face delivery delays on Wednesday, according to a service advisory issued online. FedEx does not provide refunds or credits under its money-back guarantee program when it announces a National Service Disruption.

Several inches of snow and sleet fell over the mid-South on Tuesday night, including Memphis. According to meteorological forecasts, the region will continue to experience frigid temperatures through Friday. The snowfall also reached Louisville, Kentucky, home to UPS’s (NYSE: UPS) primary air hub. The express delivery and logistics company stated that operational delays at the Worldport facility may impact anticipated delivery timeframes for a limited number of air and international shipments.

Further north, Toronto Pearson International Airport has closed two runways, one of which is Canada’s busiest, reducing aircraft capacity. At the same time, it recovered from the Delta accident and three heavy snowstorms last week. According to airport duty manager Jake Keating, two more runways are open for traffic. 

The airport restricts the number of departures allowed during the day to avoid overcrowding and planes trapped on the airfield waiting for gates. Nav Canada, the air traffic control manager, also limits arrivals, he stated on Toronto’s morning show “CP24.” On Wednesday, around 950 flights will arrive and leave from Toronto Pearson. As of 7 a.m., around 5.5% of flights had been canceled, according to X. Investigators said the overturned Delta CRJ-900 airplane will remain on the runway for 48 hours while they investigate the cause of the accident. 

“We anticipate it may take several more days, depending on the weather, to return to fully normal operations,” according to a news statement. The airline’s cargo business, which flies six Boeing 767-300 freighters and controls goods carried by passenger planes, stated separately that shipments are being delayed due to 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 on our cargo operations, but it is too soon to determine the extent of the impact as it remains a fluid situation,” said Air Canada in a statement provided to FreightWaves.