Sunwing’s Saskatchewan flight cancellations hamper wedding plans for Ontario woman | 24CA News

Ashley Perry’s wedding ceremony gown hangs idle in her closet as she works to salvage the day she is to put on it.

Fight cancellations by Sunwing have put the Gravenhurst, Ont., girl’s Jan. 19 vacation spot wedding ceremony in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in jeopardy.

Perry was trying ahead to getting married in 2023 after two years of pandemic restrictions throughout which Perry labored tirelessly as a primary responder, typically battling with COVID-19 herself, and misplaced her father.

“The light at the end of the tunnel was, once all this was over, to get our friends and family together and finally celebrate our wedding, but it seems Sunwing doesn’t want it to happen,” she stated.

“My Saskatchewan best friends received a notification on Thursday that their flights have been cancelled.”

In a news launch issued Thursday, Sunwing introduced it has cancelled all flights out of Saskatchewan’s two main cities till Feb. 3, efficient instantly.

“Sunwing had initially planned to supplement seasonal demand for travel from Saskatoon and Regina with the assistance of temporary foreign pilots for the winter months,” the discharge stated.

“When foreign pilot deployment was not agreed to, we brought in subservices to sustain our operations, however the conditions and schedule have proven too significant for our subserviced aircraft partners.”

Perry stated lacking out on her dream of “her father giving her away at her wedding” was already tough to cope with, however now the airline is making issues worse.

In May, the 36-year-old booked quite a lot of flights to Punta Cana for her 25 friends from throughout Canada. She stated the method with Sunwing was an ordeal even again then.

“I lost out on lower prices as our Sunwing representative used to take a week to respond to our questions. The $500 increase on tickets made two other folks from Saskatchewan drop out,” she stated

“On occasions, they misspelled names of our guests. All of it was still bearable, but the news of cancellations has me worried. There’s no accountability and it’s unnecessary stress.”

Perry stated her $8,000 USD wedding ceremony service payment will go to waste if different friends drop too. She additionally has already paid for kennels for her pets.

Her sister, who has to fly out of Winnipeg, can also be nervous that the ripple impact of Sunwing Saskatchewan cancellations will crawl to different provinces. 

“What if Winnipeg is next?” Perry stated.

She can also be nervous about extra Sunwing cancellations for her friends from different provinces.

“We’ll be there for a week. I want to go, but what if just like this week of horror stories we saw, my guests who are leaving behind their children in Canada get stuck there,” she stated.

“My wedding dress is looking lonely right now. It wants to be somewhere warm with my family. I can’t even describe how frustrating it is. It might just end up just my fiancé and I there. It’s turning into a dark reality.”

Dianne Lepage, a resident of Bruno, Sask., stated many individuals are in the identical place. 

Her fortieth wedding ceremony anniversary, which was in 2020, went uncelebrated because of COVID-19.

“We started planning this trip in July 2022 and booked January 2 to 9 to fly to Cancun. It was a surprise Christmas present for our grandkids. None of our grandkids have ever been to Mexico and some have never been on a plane,” she stated.

“Everyone was really excited. We are all really disappointed now.”

She stated loads of planning went into it and it’s “not easy to rebook when 16 people are involved”.

CBC reached out to Sunwing for a remark. It didn’t provide additional remark and as a substitute supplied the identical cancellation announcement it had launched Thursday.

On Friday morning, Premier Scott Moe referred to as the cancellations a “very irresponsible decision” by Sunwing, significantly for many who are at the moment at their vacation spot and not sure how and when they are going to get residence.

“Saskatchewan’s Transportation Minister Jeremy Cockrill has been in contact with Sunwing and with federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra asking for a detailed plan of how and when passengers who travelled from Saskatchewan will get back, which is the immediate priority,” the assertion learn.

“In the days ahead, we expect Sunwing to appropriately compensate everyone who did not receive the service they purchased.”

Biggar, Sask., resident Mat Danychuk was supposed to depart for Puerto Vallarta along with his household on Dec. 25, however his flight bought cancelled.

He was rebooked to fly out on Dec. 30, but it surely too was cancelled.

“We are not entitled to any compensation and [they’re] saying the weather didn’t allow travel, but everybody else was flying that day,” he stated.

“We had a Christmas day supper in a hotel lobby.”

His household misplaced what they spent on accommodations and kennel companies.

Danychuk and his household intend on driving to Edmonton and flying to their vacation spot from there.

“Sunwing is blaming it all on weather, but it’s mismanagement and they are not owning it.”