The two hour flight stretched to 36 hours and involved overnight stays in Anchorage and Vancouver, but passengers aboard an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Whitehorse finally reached their destination Wednesday. The 88 passengers left for Whitehorse on schedule Monday night but the airport there wasn’t within weather minimums so the A319 headed for its alternate in Anchorage. Even though some of the passengers didn’t have passports, they were allowed to go to a hotel for the night before a second try the next day. That didn’t work out either so the plane headed to Vancouver where the passengers were put up for a second night.
Some of them got to Whitehorse the next morning and the rest got afternoon flights. Because the diversions were weather related, Air Canada wasn’t obligated to pay for hotels and expenses but it did. While there were complaints from some passengers about poor communication by the airline, most who spoke to the CBC took the international tour in stride. Meanwhile, Air North flights operated normally because the airline is able to use a GPS approach with lower minimums.