Calgarians stuck in Cuba trying to get home from winter vacations

Dream vacations have turned into travel turmoil this week for many Sunwing customers, including several Calgarians.

Dream vacations turned into travel turmoil this week for many Sunwing customers, including a number of Calgarians, after the airline says it was forced to ground dozens of flights to and from its sunny destinations.

CTV News spoke to a number of Calgarians in Cuba, who were supposed to fly home with Sunwing Vacations earlier this week. One family said they’ve had their return flight delayed nine times in four days.

Colleen Clark and her family were due home Tuesday from Varadero.

First, their flight was delayed for 24 hours – and they empathized – after hearing about the situation at Toronto International Airport when a plane crashed on one of its runways, resulting in a numerous flight delays and cancellations.

But the delays kept piling up.

Luckily, the resort allowed them to stay, but they’re also running low on their in-laws’ medication, the parents are missing work and the kids are missing school.

And booking with another air carrier Clark said would cost at least $10,000 for the family of six.

Another stranded Calgarian, Alexis McCutchon, who was stuck in Cuba with her two sons, bit the bullet and has now paid $5,000 to fly home with a different air carrier.

“Our first flight was delayed, and now we’re nine delays in and four days later,” said McCutchon.

Both Clark and McCutchon said they’re also frustrated because of the lack of communication with Sunwing.

Meanwhile, the airline has posted online that it is working to get flights to stranded customers.

Friday, the Toronto airport’s departure page showed Sunwing flights departing from Toronto. There was no update on Sunwing’s website after it issued a number of updates Thursday.

CTV News has reached out to Sunwing and its parent company WestJet but has not heard back yet.

With files from CTV’s Camilla di Giuseppe and Alex Arsenych