Cancelled Flights Make for Rough Holiday Season for Many Canadian Travellers

The 4-year-old son of Jared Ragel is asleep on a suitcase at the Cancun airport on Dec. 21, 2022, after delayed flights stranded hundreds of Canadians. (Courtesy of Jared Regel)

Jared Regel was one of hundreds of Canadians stuck in Mexico over the holiday season after Sunwing, a discount airline, cancelled their flights home.

Some passengers were moved from hotel to hotel, some were forced to sleep overnight in a hotel lobby or at the airport, and others eventually bought tickets on other airlines to make it home for the holidays.

Regel, his wife, and their 4-year-old son were delayed 72 hours in Mexico. They originally flew to Cancun on Dec. 12 and were scheduled to fly back to Regina, Saskatchewan, on Dec. 19.

A Sunwing representative told the couple that a winter storm in Vancouver was making it hard to get planes in and out, Regel told The Epoch Times.

The day they were supposed to depart, a Sunwing representative told them there would be a delay, but to check out of the hotel, and hang out at the resort until it was time to leave. The flight was not rescheduled that day, and they spent another night at the same resort.

On night two, there was still no flight, and the family was moved to a different resort. The next day, they were sent to the airport at 5:00 p.m., but the flight never arrived.

Slept at Airport

Regel’s 4-year-old son fell asleep on a suitcase while waiting in the airport at around 10:00 p.m.

Eventually, the family was told there were accommodations found for them, but it was an adult-only resort that would not allow their son, so Sunwing had to find them an alternate place to stay. By the time they got to a hotel for the night at around 3:30 a.m., they had been sitting in the airport with their young child for roughly 10 hours.

Regel said his family was one of the luckier ones. “Things could have been worse,” he said. Some travellers slept in the airport because rooms at nearby hotels were full. Others had to buy tickets home on a different airline. Eventually, on Dec. 22, the family was told there would be a flight home.

He said, on the last day, “it was clear the infrastructure at Cancun airport had collapsed.”

“People were getting out of taxis and cabs miles from the airport, walking to it, because it was so jammed,” said Regel. He said there were hundreds of Canadians trying to get flights home.

“We were just happy to be home before Christmas,” he added.

Sohail Shahidnia was stranded for a period of time, also in Cancun, Mexico. The Toronto man was travelling with his wife and two friends, and was scheduled to fly home early on Christmas Day. He said for the first time since COVID restrictions and travel bans were lifted, his family “expected a normal Christmas.”

Passengers await transport at the airport in Cancun, Mexico, in the early hours of Dec. 25, 2022, after their delayed flight home to Canada was cancelled once again. (Hina Itsaso/The Canadian Press)

Instead, on the day of their departure, Shahidnia and other Canadian passengers at the resort were told the airport bus was not coming and that the flight may be rescheduled.

“We were all checked out and in the lobby,” he said. Five hours later, the group was told the flight was back on. While they were waiting at the hotel, they were told they could not use the amenities because they had already checked out.

Eventually, a bus came and took roughly 60 passengers all heading back to Toronto. The rest of the travellers were told to take a taxi because the bus was full, said Shahidnia.

‘Insanely Crowded’

At the airport, roughly 600 Canadians were waiting to go home. “The airport was insanely crowded,” Shahidnia said, with anywhere from 300 to 400 people waiting at the gate.

He said after Sunwing announced that those with disabilities and in wheelchairs could board the plane, they were then yelled at to get off the plane. “Staff were shouting at elderly people,” he alleged.

The passengers were told the plane was not ready after all. “We were told the pilot was tired and was going home to rest,” he added.

The flight was ultimately cancelled. He said at one point, angry customers were given the idea that there were no hotels to accommodate them and passengers would be forced to stay overnight at the airport.

“The people started chanting, ‘let us home,’ and the Mexican national police came.” Shahidnia said the police had their hands on their guns and he felt threatened. All of the services at the airport were closed.

“There was no water, there was no food. People needed to take medication. There was no blankets. It was cold. No one had their luggage,” says Shahidnia.

He said airport staff dumped passengers’ luggage outside at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. in the pouring rain. His luggage was damaged and his clothes inside were wet.

Once the passengers were outside, said Shahidnia, the airport staff would not let the passengers back in. He said the Canadian group spent two and a half hours outside in the rain, before finally being loaded on a bus, taken to a hotel, and told to sleep on the lobby floor.

The next day, after finding out there would be no flights until Dec. 29, Shahidnia had enough. His group purchased tickets on American Airlines, going through Miami, at a cost of nearly $1,000 just for the married couple, and 16 hours later, on Dec. 26, they finally arrived home.

“Sunwing kept blaming the storm, but obviously, it had nothing to do with the storm, because there were other airlines and flights that were leaving,” said Shahidnia.

Flight Delays

Noah Calberry of Brantford, Ontario, had a similar experience. He told The Epoch Times he was travelling with his girlfriend, and at the last minute, were informed their Dec. 24 flight had been delayed. Brantford said Sunwing was talking about a Dec. 29 departure instead, blaming staffing issues.

Calberry called the conditions at the Cancun airport “inhumane.” “There was no food, no water, the airport staff refused to call a supervisor,” he said. “All the stores and food places were closed.”

Calberry said perhaps as many as 500 Canadians were waiting to go back to Toronto on a Sunwing flight, while watching other airlines with flights departing. That night, some of the passengers slept in a closed Starbucks, until security kicked them out in the middle of the night.

An Air Canada aircraft covered with snow and ice is moved by a tug as a Westjet aircraft is seen being moved behind it, at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on Dec. 21, 2022. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Other people, said Calberry, including families with young children and elderly passengers, slept on the airport floor without blankets. He said the experience took a “toll on mental health.”

Eventually, Calberry booked a flight on Transat for himself and his girlfriend, spending over $1,000 to make it home on Christmas Day.

His experience was not unique. Sheldon de Souza said he was stranded in Puerto Vallarta with his wife, three children, and three friends of the family, and spent days with poor communication from the airline and constantly scheduled, then cancelled, flights.

Eventually, he booked himself a flight on Air Canada and made it back to Calgary on Dec. 23, at a cost of $1,000. His wife and children flew home separately on Boxing Day when a Sunwing flight was finally available.

A spokesperson from Sunwing told The Epoch Times that a number of return flights to Canada “continue to be impacted by delays due to displaced crew and aircraft resulting from the aftermath of severe weather disruptions across Canada. We are working hard to reaccommodate customers in destination by subservicing aircraft, and arranging alternate hotels and transfers for those with overnight delays.”

‘Recovery Flights’

Sunwing stated they have completed two recovery flights so far this week, and “have planned another eight recovery flights which are scheduled to depart up to and including December 30, 2022,” to get Canadians home.

Sunwing has also stated they will reimburse passengers who have to find their own way home.

“Customers currently in destination who would prefer to book an earlier return flight on another carrier can do so at their own cost, should they so choose, and may submit a refund request for their unused Sunwing return flight,” the spokesperson said.

The crowded Montreal International Airport on Dec. 27, 2022, after a winter storm delayed flights. (Courtesy of Cassidy Charette)

Cassidy Charette, from Montreal, booked a flight with her boyfriend and her best friend—who flew to Canada from Zurich, Germany—for a week’s vacation at Playa Del Carmen. The group of three planned to fly into Cancun on Dec. 26 and stay until Jan. 2. As it turned out, they never even made it out of the Montreal airport.

Charette told The Epoch Times she received an email in the middle of the night, at 2:30 a.m. the day of her flight, saying the flight had been cancelled and moved to 7:00 a.m. on Dec. 27.

After multiple delays and cancellations, including waiting at the gate for over four hours, then being told to reclaim their baggage and go through the check-in process again, Charette received another message saying the flight had been rescheduled again.

“The crew that was originally supposed to be working the Cancun flight were poached and told to work another short-staffed Sunwing flight ... instead. There is insufficient staff, no communication, and no answers. Every staff member told us ’they couldn’t make any promises’ and that’s all we were given,” she said. According to Charette, a Sunwing staff member said, “The real issue isn’t weather, it’s staffing.”

After 12 hours at the airport, Charette said it was clear their whole trip was ruined. “We never even got to leave. We ended up requesting a full refund.”

Charette said the group plans to use what little remains of their holidays and “do a road trip to New York City instead.”

“We had to scramble to find a solution.”

As of Dec. 27, Edmonton resident Matthew Hudson and his family of five had been stuck in Cancun for over 24 hours. He said there has been zero communication and unexpected extra costs. The family booked the only hotel room they could find, at a cost of US$1,400 per night. They also booked flights home on WestJet, which depart on Dec. 29, at a cost of almost $5,000.

“This should be a wake-up call to the Canadian airline industry and should be a wake-up call to the government in terms of rules and regulations surrounding air travel,” he said.

Shahidnia, who has a bachelor’s degree in law, said he has networked with other Canadian passengers to bring legal action against the airline; 160 people have joined the group so far, and Shahidnia expects there ultimately to be up to 500 passengers who join a lawsuit.

Under Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, passengers who are delayed are entitled to monetary compensation as well as accommodations covered by the airline.

Video courtesy of Sohail Shahidnia. The Canadian Press contributed to this report.