Sunwing is getting shade from some travelers in Saskatchewan who claim the airline is leaving them stranded at airports in other provinces.Sunwing has been scrambling to bring hundreds of passengers home from sunny destinations after winter storms disrupted its operations over the holiday.
On Friday, Sunwing Vacations announced it was suspending its flights from the Saskatoon and Regina airports for a month. Patrick Gobeil says his group, who were supposed to fly back from Mexico to Saskatoon on December 23rd, were delayed until December 30th — and then Sunwing left them in Calgary. They rented vehicles on New Year’s Eve and piled 11 people — and luggage — into three cars and drove all night to get home to Prince Albert.
A few days ago, 620 CKRM spoke with a group of travelers from Saskatchewan who were stranded in Varadero, Cuba. They were supposed to fly home Boxing Day, but were left with cancelled flights and very little communication from Sunwing Airlines. They had a similar story of a middle of the night flight back to Canada, but instead of bringing them home, Sunwing flew them all to Winnipeg where arrangements were being made to get them onto a flight from another airline to get the rest of the way home. Those flights only had a few seats, so the group was now stranded in Winnipeg. Thanks to a sympathetic employee of a car rental company, they were able to rent a car. and drive from Winnipeg to Regina.
Sunwing has been asked to comment on these stories, but has not yet responded.
-With files from the Canadian Press-
