Newfoundland man rents car, drives home after cancelled flight from Toronto

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A winter storm, which has and continues to wreak havoc on some of the nation’s busiest airports, has cancelled umpteen flights for travellers, most of whom who were on their way to see friends and relatives for the holidays. Some have found themselves rebooked on flights which aren’t scheduled until Boxing Day, a detail which scuppers Christmas plans for many.

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Newfoundland man rents car, drives home after cancelled flight from Toronto Back to video

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Except for at least one intrepid and resourceful Newfoundlander. Finding himself without a ticket home until after the 25^th, David Bradbury decided the best thing to do was rent a Toyota Corolla, as reported by Global News, from a kiosk at Pearson International and drive all the way to Newfoundland. Other outlets are reporting Bradbury lives in Conception Bay South – locals just call it ‘CBS’, by the way – which would make for a 3,072 kilometre drive from Terminal 3 at Pearson. This includes a seven-hour ferry ride from Cape Breton to Newfoundland, after which there is a 900-km sojourn across the island.

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It must be said that this writer, born and raised on The Rock, cannot truly understand why so many outlets are fascinated by this story. True, it is Christmas and this man is using all the tools at his disposal in order to get home and see his family after being gone since September. However, mainlanders need to understand that most Newfoundlanders are used to quickly adapting their plans (sometimes in creative ways), thanks to weather or fuel shortages or the simple lack of service which comes part and parcel with living on a barren rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Case in point – your author and his wife did exactly the same thing as Mr. Bradbury is doing right now after snowstorms sank the last leg of our flight journey back from Las Vegas in pre-pandemic times. The little Air Canada flight could not land at our destination and instead chose to pitch down at the tiny Fredericton airport. With no new flights forthcoming any time soon and the spectre of sleeping at a lonely airport next to a hundred other stranded passengers looking very unappealing, we made quick friends with another traveller and decided to split the cost of a rental car. We paid, she e-transferred money for half the bill to our account, and we set out in the rough weather taking turns behind the wheel. Easy peasy. Since her destination was a few clicks past our house, she simply dropped us off and returned the rental on her own. We were never reimbursed a cent from Air Canada, by the way.

We wish Mr. Bradbury safe travels and hope his rental car gets him home in time for Christmas.