Sunwing today issued a formal apology for stranding passengers in Mexico over the Christmas holidays. In a note signed by Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter and Sunwing Airlines President Len Corrado, the company said it’s “incredibly sorry” for days of chaos that saw flights cancelled and left Canadians stranded in Mexico for days. “Sunwing was founded on a promise to help make Canadians’ vacation dreams come true with affordable all inclusive getaways to dozens of highly rated vacation destinations. We are astutely aware that, for too many Canadians, we failed to live up to that promise this holiday season. Read more
Christmas
The Christmas holiday season is proving to be the opposite of merry and bright for many Canadians. Major cancellations continued at airports and on train lines in eastern Canada on Christmas Day, when most Canadians hope to spend time with family and friends. All VIA Rail trains between Toronto and Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa are cancelled today, VIA Rail stated. It was much better than Saturday, but Christmas Day Sunday still saw more than 130 outgoing and incoming flights at Toronto Pearson, which means travel plans were disrupted or entirely cancelled for thousands and thousands of people. FlightAware reported Read more
The worst appears to be over for southern Ontario, but frigid temperatures and strong winds are still limiting travel for many. Roads are treacherous, and VIA Rail also is having trouble with trains in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor. CP24 reports passengers on a train heading from Ottawa to Toronto have been stuck on board a stalled train car for 17 hours. Airports appear to be recovering in Ontario and Quebec as the snow dissipates. “The last several days have been very challenging for the airlines and they’ve been proactively cancelling and delaying flights,” said Tori Gass, a spokesperson for Toronto Read more
Frightful weather notwithstanding, Santa Claus has been cleared to glide through Canadian air space on Christmas Day. Federal Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra today said he’s pleased to announce that he has cleared Santa and his reindeer flight crew for take-off in Canadian airspace. In a secure message to Alghabra earlier this week, Santa confirmed that he completed his final test flight of the year and checked that he and the reindeer showed no signs of COVID-19 symptoms before take-off. Earlier this month, Transport Canada Safety Inspectors cleared Santa’s sleigh for travel. The Inspectors conducted their stringent safety, communications, and Read more
The holiday travel season is proving to be a disaster for many. WestJet is cancelling hundreds of flights in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec due to major winter storms that are wreaking havoc with holiday travel. Air Canada today said it pre-cancelled an undetermined number of flights in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal due to the impending storm, while Porter Airlines said “many” Ontario-based flights will likely be cancelled starting this afternoon. Sunwing says it has had to cancel many southbound flights from Western Canada through until Christmas. Airlines say they’re doing their best to cope with what some weather experts Read more
