Mexico-bound Sunwing passengers stranded at Edmonton airport – Edmonton | Globalnews.ca

Planeloads of passengers arriving in Mexico are demanding answers from Sunwing after flights were delayed for more than 24 hours from Edmonton International Airport.

A Sunwing flight from Edmonton to Cancun was originally scheduled to depart at 9 a.m. Wednesday. After several delays, passengers say the flight was eventually canceled and they were sent home.

“They offered $20 food stamps and then taxi vouchers home and back to the airport. Also, if we had wanted to stay in a hotel, they would have covered it,” said Herc Magnus, who is on the flight with his wife and four-year-old son.

Passengers said they were then told their flight would leave at 9am on Thursday, but arrived at the airport to learn it was delayed again.

“We were told there’s no problem, you’re going to fly on time this time,” Magnus said Thursday from YEG. “And within an hour they had another five-hour delay.

“The hardest part for us is just delay after delay. And while they treat us well here at the airport, I want to know what will happen to the length of my trip. Shall we continue it? Will I be compensated? And this information is hard to find now.

“Even now we’re leaving, we won’t get there until late at night because we still have to travel another hour to get to the hotel. So yesterday’s gone, today’s gone, and we don’t know if they’re going to continue on or not, or if we’ll just go home and have a shorter stay in Mexico.

Cindy Bodner is from Edson, Alta., and drove to YEG early Wednesday through snow and ice.

“It’s not like we can just go home and come back when these delays (occur).”

Magnus said he was told Wednesday’s delays were due to software problems and Thursday’s delays were due to a lack of aircrew. But other travelers say it’s been hard to get a straight answer.

“Every time we go to that little window, the people are very nice, but they have a different story every time. There were technical problems yesterday. Today they tell us that yesterday was the weather. Well, all the other planes flew yesterday,” Bodner said.

Popular now

• 

  Dry shampoo reminder: More than 100 cases or injuries have been reported in Canada so far

• 

  A NASCAR driver is wowing racing fans with a move he learned playing Nintendo

“Today they said their flight crew was sick.”

Will Bondy, another traveler to Cancun, said it has been a frustrating experience.

“Nothing they’ve told us so far has been consistent,” he said. “It all sounds so different. For a company this size, there should be something to keep us updated with real data. I honestly think they’re making it up on the fly.

“The experience has not been that great.”

Global News has contacted Sunwing to find out more about the delays and passenger claims of a lack of communication.

The airline said on Twitter on Wednesday that “a system outage with our third-party provider is affecting certain flight plans. Your flight may be delayed as this issue affects multiple airlines in North America.”

The airline encouraged passengers to submit questions to its Sunwing Cares website.

Sunwing said in an update on social media on Thursday morning that it had regained its ability to send flight plans and operations began to normalize. However, the airline said customers can still expect delays as it operates return flights and returns to regular flights.

“It’s a lot of delays and not a lot of answers,” Magnus said. “So it’s hard. We have a child – a four-year-old – and he’s been really good with all of this because he doesn’t really understand. But it’s just heartbreaking that he’s being entertained for so long and just sitting in an airport. There’s nothing to do and he wants to go to Mexico.

“It’s a sad thing for us. There are worse problems in the world, but it’s hard when it’s your child.

On top of that, Magnus said this is the last trip the family plans for a while because his wife is pregnant.

“We really wanted to go. It’s been four years since we went on our last holiday and this is our eldest child’s first holiday. So we have a lot of great things going on there and it’s very disappointing if it doesn’t work out or it turns into a really negative experience.

Magnus believes there should be a better system in place to get timely information from Sunwing, including whether or how the airline will compensate him for delays.

“We have to open a claim when we get to Mexico, and we don’t want to do that when we go on vacation. We want to be on vacation, not do paperwork,” he said.

“We have been treated well at the airport. The only thing is, it’s been hard to get information that feels right, and it’s definitely hard to get that information about compensation, which is the biggest thing on my mind and probably a lot of people’s minds right now.

Passengers on the flight have created a Facebook group to communicate with each other about what compensation others may receive from Sunwing.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.