Water main break disrupts flights at Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport

TORONTO — A water main break disrupted flight operations at Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport on Monday, causing dozens of cancellations and delays.

The airport issued its first warning on social media at 9:06 a.m., stating water service to the terminal building had been interrupted. "Flight operations are currently impacted," the airport wrote. "Passengers should check with their airline for the latest flight status information. Further updates will be posted to this website and our social media channels as they become available."

By Monday evening, the airport had recorded 32 flight cancellations, the highest total for any airport in Canada or the U.S. that day and the airport's highest cancellation total of the month.

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Air Canada's primary regional partner, Jazz, led with 22 canceled flights and eight delays. Porter Airlines had 10 cancellations and 23 delays, affecting 27 percent of its flights at the airport.

Cancellations included service to Ottawa, Montreal, and U.S. hubs in Washington, New York, Newark, Chicago and Boston.

Air Canada updated its travel alerts for flights at the airport on Monday. "Flights may be impacted by flooding," the airline wrote. "Air Canada has revised its ticketing policy to make it easier for customers traveling on an affected flight to make changes to their booking without penalty, space permitting. If your flight is affected, you can retrieve your booking to change your flight free of charge."

Toronto Port Authority spokesperson Jessica Pellerin said the investigation into the water main failure was ongoing. "At this time, we can confirm that the incident is not related to any construction activity at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport," Pellerin said in an email. "Crews remain on site conducting further investigation and repair work."

The airport would not say how many flights had been affected nor when it expected the issue to be resolved.

At 7:11 p.m., the airport confirmed repairs had been successfully completed and regular water service restored to the terminal. "Passengers should continue to consult airlines for flight status, however the airport has begun to resume normal operation. Thank you for your patience while this work was underway," the airport said.

Despite the repair, the airport warned passengers that delays and cancellations may continue to arise. According to morning data from FlightAware on Tuesday, Jazz had five canceled flights at the airport as a result of the previous day's disruption.

The service at Billy Bishop Airport is expected to be restored on Tuesday, though travelers should still plan ahead and check with their airline to confirm flight status.

With files from TheTravel and Toronto Star