Annegret Kukuz thought she would be on a beach on the sand in Aruba, but that expectation quickly failed when she arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
Kukuz’s flight was scheduled to take off at 9:30 a.m. Monday, but due to unexpected delays that blocked thousands of Sunwing Airlines passengers, it is just one of many left unanswered. The Toronto-based airline says the shutdown continues to harass the company that operates its registration systems.
“We were here almost all day yesterday with only poor communication skills and complete chaos,” Kukuz said on Tuesday.
“No one had answers. The information was very scarce. People were very disappointed.”
Kukuz says she herself is disappointed with the continuing delays that have returned her flights several times, but adds that the airline has been “very generous” in accommodating passengers with hotel and food vouchers.
“It’s a waiting game and you just have to be patient,” she told CBC News.
“It’s a first-world problem, isn’t it? … So, well, we’re going on vacation; this is not the end of the world. ”
Frank Galati arrived at the airport at 6:15 a.m. Monday to board a flight from Toronto to Aruba, which was postponed to Tuesday. (CBC)
Sunwing says it is trying to find a solution to the delays.
“Our team is working day and night to find alternative ways to take customers to their destination or on return flights home,” the airline said in a statement.
As of Tuesday, Sunwing says about 15 of the more than 40 planned fields have been processed since the technical problem first surfaced.
“While our system provider continues to work to resolve system outages, we continue to manually process as many flights as possible, but expect further delays,” the airline tweeted Tuesday.
Sunwing says it will compensate all passengers who are delayed for more than three hours. But some customers say they prefer to cancel their trip.
As of Tuesday, Sunwing Airlines says about 15 of the more than 40 scheduled flights have been processed since the technical problem first surfaced. (CBC)
Frank Galati arrived at the airport at 6:15 a.m. Monday. Like Cuckoo, he waited to board the flight from Toronto to Aruba.
“If it continues to be delayed, then postpone the trip and return our money or give us credit or whatever,” Galati said.
Jason White has also been waiting in Pearson for two days after his flight to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic was delayed. He has traveled back and forth several times between the airport and the hotel provided by Sunwing.
“[We] I still don’t know if we’re going today or not, “White said Tuesday.
“The whole thing sucks. We’re going to lose two or three days until we get there.”
“We don’t know what’s going on”
While many passengers are waiting in Canada to board, others are stranded abroad and do not know when they will be able to return home.
James Smythe’s family is waiting to fly back to Canada after their Sunwing flight was postponed twice on Tuesday – leaving them stranded in a resort in Punta Cana.
Smythe, his wife and two daughters, who live in Acton, Ont., Have been at the resort for seven days but have had to postpone their flight home for Saturday due to medical problems.
They didn’t expect to have to wait any longer.
James Smythe, his wife and two daughters are stranded in a resort in Punta Cana, waiting to fly back to Toronto after their flight to Sunwing was twice delayed. (Submitted by James Smythe)
“Now it looks like we’re stuck in purgatory,” Smythe told CBC Toronto in an interview with Zoom on Tuesday.
“This is worrying because we don’t know if we need to book alternative flights, if we just need to stay put. We don’t really know 100 percent what is going on, so it’s hard to say what to do. “
Smythe says he is worried about running out of the medication he takes every day.
“There’s no communication, so … we don’t know what’s going on and when we’re going out.”
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