‘It’s very stressful:‘ Ottawa passengers stuck in Cuba after Sunwing delays flights

Ottawa residents have been stuck in Cuba for days, after their Sunwing Airlines flight faced numerous delays. CTV’s Kimberley Johnson reports.

A beautiful trip to Cuba became a nightmare for an Ottawa resident after her Sunwing flight back on Thursday was delayed more than eight times, leaving her and her friends stranded in Varadero.

Liliane Hajjar says escaping the Ottawa winter with her friend and her friend’s parents was a wonderful week away until Thursday’s snowstorm cancelled her flight and left her stranded.

“We absolutely understood, right? What was going on in Ottawa. And then we started getting delayed and delayed. And now we’re on our eighth delay,” she said.

She says she was promised flights that got changed – some without notice. She was set to leave early Saturday morning at 3:41 a.m. and it was only through other passengers that she found out it was moved to the evening.

Hajjar says she was unable to reach a representative through the phone and the app that she had been receiving updates on had stopped doing so.

She was only able to receive updates through a Sunwing representative at the resort for only a few hours a day.

“I just want them to tell us what is going on,” she said through tears in an interview with CTV News Ottawa.

She says one of the people in her group has serious health issues and worried further delays could mean they run out of medication. The group paid for each extra hotel night themselves, she said.

“Everybody thinks you’re in Cuba, you’re in paradise, but it’s not like that,” she said. “It’s unknown. You have to keep going back to the lobby, you have to keep trying to get information. So, it’s not an extra three days of relaxing at all. It’s very stressful.”

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, Sunwing said it experienced disruptions because of weather on Thursday, but a “mechanical problem” was found on an earlier flight that caused further disruptions.

“Sunwing Airlines flight WG2467 travelling northbound from Varadero to Ottawa (originally scheduled to depart Thursday, February 13) was proactively delayed out of an abundance of caution and with the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew as our top priority,” a Sunwing spokesperson said in an email.

“However, a mechanical problem identified on an earlier southbound departure out of Ottawa airport to Varadero prompted an unforeseen disruption which led to crew constraints, and affected scheduling and crew limitations for the return flight WG2467. During this time, our in-destination partner NexusTours secured overnight accommodations for impacted passengers.”

In an update, Sunwing said the flight departed Varadero and landed in Ottawa early Sunday morning.

“We sincerely thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we recover from initial disruptions due to this week’s winter weather events, and prepare for the added complexities this weekend’s impending heavy snowfall will bring to our operations,” Sunwing said.

Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, a passenger advocacy group, says those who are delayed more than 48 hours are legally entitled to be booked on a flight home through another airline as per the Air Passenger Protection Regulations.

“They cannot keep deferring beyond that 48-hour window. They cannot keep deferring it to more and more flights of their own,” he said.

Lukacs says if the passengers are not booked on another flight within that time or are refused to be put on another airlines flight, passengers should book themselves and require the airline to pay it back along with other documented incurred expenses.

“I wouldn’t do it in an aggressive way, but I would document what you are being told, what they are refusing to do,” he said. “Record all your phone calls with the airline, all your interactions with airline agent, at the airport at the resort. Because it becomes evidence in Canada.”

He says never take a refund on the original airfare, and ensure you’re reimbursed within 30 days if you pay for a new flight yourself. He adds if they refuse, take them to small claims court.

“The lack of communication will likely make me never fly with Sunwing again,” Hajjar said.