Stranded Sunwing passengers returning to Sask. on special flights

After being stranded due to cancelled return trips, more Saskatchewan residents are returning to the province on special flights arranged by Sunwing.

Some stranded travellers had been stuck in Mexico for up to a week and say they waited for flights that never came.

“We were supposed to be home on the 25th and this was seven cancelled flights and this was number eight,” one returning Sunwing passenger told CTV News.

Sunwing has apologized to customers. It scheduled 43 recovery flights after pre-Christmas storms in Toronto and Vancouver. Most of those flights have now been completed according to the airline.

“We were in a fine resort,” Kevin Szwetz, another Sunwing passenger said.

“We were fine where we were but other people got shipped off to other resorts and their families got split up at different resorts and stuff so it was kind of tough on them.”

Some cut their vacations short to catch the first flight home.

“So we decided to come home a day early because we heard about the flight literally three hours before it left,” traveller Miera McEwan explained.

While others, like Ladin Yuzik, saw the delays as an extended vacation.

“It was pretty good. It was warm, a lot warmer than here,” Yuzik said.

Some who couldn’t wait, purchased tickets on other airlines.

“Sunwing would continue to tell us that they were coming to get us and flights were leaving and they never did,” Jeff Woodward, who booked with Sunwing, told CTV News.

“So, we booked on WestJet and came home today.”

Sunwing has cancelled all flights to Saskatchewan until February 4th as it attempts to recover.

The fallout from the decision will disrupt vacation plans for hundreds of travellers over the coming weeks.

Brian Lee and Tanya Bemis are getting married in Mexico in March with 40 guests booked on Sunwing.

“We’re a little nervous honestly right now but it will be interesting to see what happens here,” Lee said.

Sunwing expects to complete all recovery flights early this week but it could take much longer to recover the confidence of some travellers.