'A nightmare': Sunwing apologizes for 29-hour flight delay from Mexico

An Ontario family spent 18 hours in a Mexican airport on Monday waiting for their flight to Toronto, only to learn that they had to wait another day before arriving home.

The family blames Sunwing for failing to explain the rolling delays, which lasted nearly 30 hours and came as Southern Ontario grappled with the slushy aftermath of a dastardly weekend ice storm.

Britt Abusafeyeh from Windsor, Ont. spent last week at a resort in Playa del Carmen with her husband, Rami Abusafeyeh, and three kids. They were supposed to fly back to Toronto on Monday morning on Sunwing flight WG514, which was scheduled to depart at 9 a.m.

She said her kids slept outside on the sidewalk when their flight was delayed and as they waited for updates from Sunwing.

“All they do is lie. They keep telling us the plane’s ready, the plane left and then when we check the plane never left. They’re just trying to stall,” Abusafeyeh told CTVNews.ca from Cancun on Tuesday.

In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for Sunwing said they were “extremely apologetic” for the situation, which was caused by a “domino effect of delays” from the ice storm that impacted flights to and from Toronto. Affected customers will be offered a “partial refund,” the company said.

“Passengers regrettably had to wait out the majority of the delay at the airport since ongoing operational issues made it very challenging to provide accurate estimations on departure times,” a spokesperson told CTV News.

Abusafeyeh said her family arrived at the airport in Cancun at 7 a.m on Monday morning. They didn’t leave the airport until 1 a.m. Tuesday, when they were finally offered a hotel room in Cancun.

All the while, Rami said Sunwing employees refused to offer any details on what was happening.

“They refuse to talk to you or anything. If you ask them for anything, all they do is sit there and nod their head at you. They will not answer any questions. They will not do anything,” he said.

There was no sitting space inside the airport, so the family eventually went outside to wait. As the day stretched into the evening, the kids got tired and eventually fell asleep on the sidewalk.

“I didn’t spend $15,000 in a week to have my kids sleeping on the sidewalk,” said Rami.

According to passenger Shelby Zhng, who was on the same flight, a plane arrived at around 11 p.m. Monday and passengers were ready to board. However, Zhng said passengers were told that the crew needed to be switched over, and they didn’t have the crew for a new flight.

“I’m sure they know the schedule of their crew. Sunwing has to know the schedule. Why didn’t they just send us to a hotel earlier?” Zhng said.

“One guy said, ‘I feel like I’m cattle. They’re just herding us around.’”

Sunwing acknowledged the crew issue.

“By the time their incoming flight landed, our crew had exceeded duty time and the flight needed to be postponed until later today. At this point, customers were then transferred to all-inclusive hotels where they stayed until approximately noon before being transferred back to the airport for their afternoon flight,” the Sunwing spokesperson said.

The flight eventually departed just before 3 p.m. local time. It landed in Toronto around 8:25 p.m. on Tuesday. In the end, the delay lasted 29 hours and 25 minutes.

Both Zhng and the Abusafeyehs said police were eventually called to the airport to help handle disgruntled passengers.

“To intimidate us because we were all getting so impatient,” Zhng said.

Sunwing did not respond to CTV’s questions about whether police were called. However, the company confirmed that the delays have mostly cleared up, with only two flights from Toronto experiencing “significant delays” on Wednesday.

The company expects regular scheduled flight operations to return Thursday.

“We remain extremely apologetic for the inconvenience caused to our customers and will be conducting a thorough review of this incident to prevent future occurrences from taking place,” a spokesperson said.

The company added that it provided meal vouchers for customers waiting in the airport. It’s also taking steps to partially refund travellers on flight WG514.

“Once a flight delay exceeds 12 hours, we provide our customers with options in accordance with our Passenger Care Commitment, including the option to cancel with full refund or compensation in the event they choose to continue their travels. Given the exceptional circumstances of the delays to this flight, a partial refund will be issued to those affected customers,” Sunwing said.

At Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, other Sunwing travellers were in a similar bind on Tuesday evening. One family from Bradford, Ont. said they waited more than 12 hours for their flight to Cuba.

“We’ve heard that its lack of flight crew. I don’t see any issue with weather when other flights are leaving,” one man said.

Passenger Alex Kovach said he returned to Toronto a day late from Cuba after numerous delays.

“At the check-in desk we were immediately told ‘Don’t know when your flight’s going to be. Could be nine o’clock at night, could be 11 o’clock at night, could be two in the morning. Nobody really knows,” Kovach said.

Passenger Jessica Rochelle from Buffalo told CTV Toronto that she waited on the tarmac in Toronto for six hours on Monday before passengers were allowed to leave. Now back home, she is still waiting for her luggage to arrive.

“And we were like, we want to get off. They didn’t offer any food or anything -- water. We had to ask for it. They finally started to come around with water,” Rochelle said.

In a statement to CTV Toronto, Sunwing acknowledged the baggage issues.

“The ongoing weather conditions impacted airport operations and have been compounded by staffing issues on the part of Swissport, our baggage handling contractor,” Sunwing Airlines said in a statement.

For its part, Swissport said it is adding extra ramp management and paying staff overtime.

“We regret any delays caused to travellers and are working to retrieve and deliver their bags as quickly as possible,” said Pierre Payette, vice president of operations for Toronto, Swissport Canada Handling Inc.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman