Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter and Sunwing Airlines President Len Corrado have issued a statement on the holiday travel disruptions that impacted thousands of Canadian travellers. The company acknowledged "clear failures in execution."
"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 acutely aware that, for too many Canadians, we failed to live up to that promise this holiday season. We are incredibly sorry for letting our customers down," the letter stated.
Sunwing says it planned the busiest travel schedule since pre-pandemic and invested significantly to mitigate the potential risks that would come with meeting the high demand for travel over the peak winter season.
"While most of our customers enjoyed their holidays with minimal disruption, we had clear failures in execution, particularly in responding to weather-related delays and the aftermath of severe weather disruptions, which limited our ability to reposition aircraft and crew to other airports to help alleviate the backlog in flights," the company stated.
"A Confluence Of Factors" Led To Disruption
Hunter and Corrado said that while several larger carriers faced similar issues in the spring and summer over their first peak travel season since the pandemic, Sunwing is facing those challenges and obstacles during our peak season this winter.
"As a carrier scaling up to meet our highest demand in years, we built an achievable plan which, due to a confluence of factors, we could no longer deliver, and we regret that we did not meet the level of service our customers expect from Sunwing."
The company says it took a number of measures to mitigate further delays for customers when things went wrong.
Sunwing worked with other airlines to repatriate travellers stuck in destination during the holidays. (PHOTO: courtoisie de Sunwing)"This included subservicing aircraft from several airline partners to repatriate those in destination with significant delays. Our teams worked around the clock to return customers home, while providing customers in destination with hotel accommodations, food and beverage, and airport transfers, regardless of the reason for the delay," the Sunwing letter stated.
"We have completed all recovery flights related to the holiday disruption and have a roadmap in place to ensure that these issues do not repeat themselves in January or any of the months that follow," Sunwing added.
The company says this includes working on a mitigation plan to address technical issues with flight alert notifications and enhancing the communication flow to customers in destination. Poor communication was a common complaint from impacted travellers.
"We have also reduced some capacity during the month of January to ensure that we can execute to the highest standards with the least disruption to customers as we move through the winter season," Sunwing says.
Sunwing Vows Full Compliance With Pax Protection Rules
The tour operator says that it understands its obligations under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations and "will ensure full compliance with these regulations."
Sunwing says it is actively accepting eligible claims for compensation. Customers may submit their claims for review here. In addition, customers may submit receipts for related expenses incurred in destination to Sunwing Cares for review.
The company says this includes submitting receipts for reasonable expenses to purchase necessities due to baggage delays stemming from a baggage belt issue at Toronto Pearson International Airport, which impacted some customers who travelled between December 24-27, 2022. Sunwing says it continues to actively work to reunite customers who travelled during this period with their baggage.
The letter adds that Sunwing knows it cannot replace the time lost or disruption experienced during this holiday season, but is committed to doing better and regaining traveller trust in the weeks and months ahead.
"Through our unwavering commitment to making vacation dreams come true, we hope to show Canadians what a Sunwing vacation truly feels like, and thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our teams worked tirelessly to overcome these operational hurdles in recent weeks," the letter concludes.
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