TORONTO — The concerns of Saskatchewan travel agents about Sunwing’s Saskatoon flights were confirmed yesterday when the company announced new flight schedule reductions.
Sunwing is cancelling select Saskatoon departures, effective Feb. 5, including weekly Sunday flights to Puerto Vallarta starting on Feb. 5, Thursday flights to Los Cabos starting on Feb. 9 and Friday flights to Mazatlan starting on Feb. 10. The one exception to the cancellations is the scheduled Family Day weekend departure to Mazatlan on Feb. 17, which Sunwing says will operate as planned.
Sunwing is offering impacted customers travelling to Puerto Vallarta the ability to transfer their vacation package to Friday departures from Saskatoon at originally booked pricing, pending availability, change their destination for same day departures or cancel their vacations for a full refund to their original form of payment.
Customers travelling to Los Cabos or Mazatlan from Saskatoon can change their vacation destination or cancel their vacation for a full refund.
Earlier this week Sunwing announced the cancellation of almost all of its remaining winter sun flights out of Regina, effective Feb. 4.
Sunwing has also made changes in Atlantic Canada and northern Ontario. The company has trimmed and consolidated its winter sun schedule out of Halifax, Fredericton and Moncton, and cancelled its winter sun program from Sudbury and North Bay.
Last week representatives from Canada’s airline industry, including Sunwing, Air Canada and WestJet, were questioned for hours during an emergency meeting of the federal government’s Transport Committee about the holiday season travel chaos.
Sunwing Airlines president Len Corrado said Sunwing got word on Dec. 9 that its application to bring on foreign temporary pilots for the winter was denied. Transport Committee members grilled Sunwing on why it continued to book travel for Canadians knowing about the setback with the foreign temporary pilots, and why commissions have been recalled.
RECALLED COMMISSION
Sunwing apologized to customers, Saskatoon International Airport and its travel agent partners in the wake of the Saskatoon cancellations.
“The decision to reduce flight operations for the remaining balance of our winter program in Saskatoon from February onwards was deemed necessary due to operational and business constraints that would prevent us from delivering the standards of service our customers both expect and deserve when travelling with Sunwing,” said the company.
To agents, Sunwing says: “We thank our valued travel advisor community for their ongoing support and understanding throughout the past few years, and as we work through operational constraints this winter season and rebuild a fulsome program for next winter season. Through your continued collaboration we will be able to mitigate the impact to our Saskatoon customers, and return them to the destinations they love.”
Sunwing’s cancellations and recalled commissions have prompted responses from ACTA, and also from travel advisors including Jamie Milton, co-owner, Uniglobe Carefree Travel, who wrote an open letter to Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter in the wake of the first round of SK cancellations announced in December.
On Tuesday Milton told Travelweek she was concerned for Saskatoon’s schedule in the wake of the Regina cancellations. The situation is “awful,” says Milton.
