What led to holiday travel delays? Sunwing, airline execs set to face committee – National | 24CA News

MPs will hear testimony from Sunwing and different airline executives on Thursday in a extremely anticipated committee assembly probing latest vacation journey delays.

Members of the House of Commons Transport, Infrastructure and Communities committee will meet on Jan. 12 to listen to from not solely the airline executives, however airport authorities, federal businesses and the minister of transport.

The committee met on Monday and agreed to undertake a research into the journey delays and the remedy of air and rail passengers, after 1000’s of Canadians confronted cancellations and delays resulting from poor climate over the vacation break.

From 10:30 a.m. to midday ET on Thursday, executives with Air Canada, WestJet and Sunwing will seem.

They embody Kevin O’Connor, vice chairman of system operations management with Air Canada, and David Rheault, vice chairman of presidency and neighborhood relations at Air Canada; Andrew Gibbons, vice chairman of exterior affairs with WestJet, and Scott Wilson, vice chairman of flight operations at Westjet; and Len Corrado, president of Sunwing, and Andrew Dawson, president of tour operations at Sunwing Travel Group.

Last week, Corrado and Dawson apologized to prospects in a joint assertion for Sunwing’s position in vacation journey delays. Hundreds of Canadians have been stranded in Mexico and different sunny locations over the vacations when Sunwing cancelled flights resulting from a significant winter storm.

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Holding airways accountable

Passengers described being shuffled between lodges, generally arriving to search out there have been no rooms booked for them. The stranded Canadians mentioned Sunwing officers additionally handed alongside inaccurate and incomplete details about once they may have the ability to head house.

“We regret that we did not meet the level of service our customers expect from Sunwing,” Corrado and Dawson mentioned within the joint assertion.

“We had clear failures in execution, particularly in responding to weather-related delays and the aftermath of severe weather disruptions, which limited our ability to reposition aircraft and crew to other airports to help alleviate the backlog in flights.”

After the executives testify, officers with Montreal and Vancouver’s airport authorities will seem from midday to 1:30 p.m. ET.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and transport division officers will testify from 2:30 to three:30 p.m. ET. More division officers and members of the Canadian Transportation Agency will then communicate from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET.

During Monday’s assembly, the transportation committee additionally agreed to listen to from Toronto’s airport authority and VIA Rail. No officers from these organizations have been listed as showing on Thursday.

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Dealing with flight delays and cancellations in Travel Tips

VIA Rail apologized to its prospects on Tuesday for its service through the vacation storm, and mentioned it might be launching an exterior evaluate of its efficiency over the season.

VIA Rail left passengers within the lurch as the large winter storm triggered cancellations and delays all through the Christmas weekend.

Passengers already on board a VIA Rail practice turned caught in a single day close to Kingston, Ont., after a practice derailed, forcing them to spend practically 21 hours on the practice with minimal meals and water.

“We know, we should have been more forthcoming in sharing information about trains that were delayed and in communicating updates. We also know we should have adopted a different approach in supporting passengers on trains that were delayed for lengthy periods,” mentioned Via Rail interim president and CEO Martin R Landry in a press release Tuesday.

“Therefore, in addition to offering a full refund to passengers, along with travel credits for those whose trains were completely immobilized, we will be reviewing our performance over the four-day period with the help of outside experts. We will be looking at a wide range of issues including our planning for the storm, our operational response, protocol around customer care and our overall communications as well as how we can better accommodate our passengers in order to get them to their destination.”

Thursday’s committee assembly can be televised by parliamentary companies for Canadians to look at dwell.

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