Ottawa passengers frustrated with Sunwing and Westjet delays, cancellations

Angelique Roy says her return flight from Cuba was delayed by 31 hours. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

It was a frustrating weekend for some Westjet and Sunwing passengers as they face delays—some of more than a day—and communication issues.

Madeline Pelletier and her husband had plans to enjoy the sun at a much warmer spot than their Orleans backyard,

“We were supposed to have our feet in the sand," Pelletier said of the couple's plans to travel to Varadero, Cuba. "It's a dream we've had for a couple of years.”

That dream is now on hold. When the couple arrived at the Ottawa airport early Sunday morning for their Sunwing flight, they found out their flight wasn’t happening.

“I don’t know why you’re here because there’s no flight for Cuba, today,” Pelletier’s husband, Yvon Deslauriers said he was told when they arrived.

“At some point, one of the travellers saw somewhere that the flight was delayed by 24 hours,” says Pelletier.

Not wanting to cut their full week vacation short, the couple cancelled their trip and have asked for a refund.

Another Sunwing passenger, Angelique Roy, was at her resort in Cuba ready to fly to Montreal. She says she only found out about the delay because the bus to the airport never showed.

“In total, the flight was delayed 31 hours,” she said.

Sunwing wasn't the only airline that saw delays over the weekend. 

“Last Wednesday, our third-party provider, Jeppesen, experienced technical difficulties causing a flight planning system outage that resulted in a number of delayed Sunwing Airlines flights,” a Sunwing spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to CTV News Ottawa. “While Sunwing flights were not cancelled, we sincerely regret that customers’ travel plans were impacted and delays were experienced getting to destination or returning home.”

Sunwing said they anticipate a return to near-normal operations by Tuesday.

"Sunwing customers in destination will be provided a return flight home and, while delayed, our teams are doing everything they can to keep our customers informed at every step, in addition to providing meal vouchers, arranging transfer services and securing hotel rooms for those with overnight delays."

The airline also adds that they sympathize with their customers, and “sincerely regret the impact to their travel plans brought on by the Jeppesen outage. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our customers for their patience as we continue to work around the clock to restore regular operations and ensure our customers can take their much-anticipated vacations or return home.”

Sunwing wasn't the only airline to see delays over the weekend. Westjet saw more than 200 cancellations related to a “service outage due to a cooling issue in our primary data centre that came back online late Saturday evening," the company said in a statement.

"As move ahead into this week’s operations, along with the recovery from the weekend and winter weather affecting Alberta and parts of Western Canada, there will be additional delays and cancellations across the next 24 hours as we work to reaccommodate guests.”

“We sincerely apologize to all guests for this unforeseen disruption to their travel plans. We deeply regret this weekend’s extraordinary events that prevented us from delivering the experience our they deserve.”

The airline says they’re assisting guest as quickly as possible and for passengers to check their travel plans with the airline's app or website.