A massive ice storm that swept across southern Ontario overnight disrupted holiday travellers across the country, including here in Winnipeg.

Winter hammered southern Ontario with an icy fury the likes of which the region hasn't seen in years.

The night sky lit up as transformers exploded and the light of day showed even more destruction.

"Well, it truly is a catastrophic storm here, probably one of the worst we've ever had," said an Ontario Hydro employee.

Cancelled or delayed flights at Toronto's Pearson International Airport caused delays across the country.

In Winnipeg, it didn't matter if they were going east or west. Most flights were one to two hours behind schedule.

Melanie Hegg's ticket to Edmonton includes a stop in Calgary. “Ifound out that I will be delayed by about an hour,” she said. “My connecting flight is about a three-hour layover, so I will probably make it in time.”

For staff at Winnipeg's airport already dealing with hectic holiday travel, the chaos caused by the Toronto ice storm just made things worse.

"Normally about 9,500 passengers will pass through Winnipeg on a day and we see that number increase by about 2,000 more people in the week leading up to Christmas, so we already had a really busy travel day in front of us," said airport spokesperson Felicity Wiltshire.

Tom Wenham and his daughter Tammy drove in from Brandon to pick up a relative coming from Thunder Bay. "Apparently there was an ice storm in Toronto and it held the plane up, so they were an hour late leaving Thunder Bay this morning,” he said.

In the end, that flight from Thunder Bay actually arrived two hours late, but the Wenhams managed to pass the time productively. "We went shopping for a couple last minute Christmas presents."

Things could be worse. In southern Ontario, hundreds of trees snapped under the weight and pressure of the ice. Hundreds of thousands are without power and it could be several days before electricity is restored to everyone, possibly leaving some families in the dark on Christmas Day.

Hearing that, Maureen Newman said the minor delay she encountered at Winnipeg's airport is not such a big deal. "I'm here to pick up my brother for our family Christmas dinner. He's going to be about 45 minutes late."

Staff at the Winnipeg airport say people should always check online, or call their airline to make sure flights are on time before heading to the airport to travel or pick somebody up. Flights are leaving for Toronto this evening, but most are between an hour and an hour and a half behind schedule.