Sunwing Vacations contacting Cuba-Halifax passengers to apologize
They are being offered vouchers for travel to make up for 20-hour ordeal
Sunwing Vacations is contacting all passengers of a Cuba-to-Halifax flight to apologize personally after the trip turned into a 20-hour nightmare that left some on board sobbing and vomiting.
Flight WG6735 was delayed leaving Cuba Thursday, then faced high winds while trying to land at Stanfield International Airport in Halifax that afternoon.
Passengers said the plane felt like it was coming in sideways and the pilot decided not to land.
Those on board said many on the flight were crying and some children were vomiting.
The flight was redirected to Fredericton, N.B., where passengers waited on the tarmac for about four hours before the plane took off for Moncton.
By the time the flight landed in Moncton, passengers said they had gone nearly 10 hours without food. It would be another three hours before they would be loaded aboard buses to be taken to Halifax.
"We can confirm that we are in the process of contacting all customers on flight WG 635 to extend our sincere apologies for their experience as a result of the weather delays and diversions of this flight," Sunwing Vacations spokeswoman Jacqueline Grossman said in an email statement to CBC News.
Anne Giles, a passenger on the flight, said she was called about 11:00 p.m. Friday by a Sunwing employee who was under the direction of company management. She said she questioned the company's policies and left the conversation feeling changes would be made.
Passengers are being offered vouchers for future travel with Sunwing, a gesture of "goodwill" the company said in its statement, as follow-up calls are made to everyone on the flight's manifest.
"We are pleased that our flight crew took the appropriate actions for the safety and well being of our customers, but remain apologetic for the inconvenience they experienced," the statement said.
That wasn't good enough for Giles, who says she will never travel with the airline again.
Sunwing says the vouchers will either be emailed to passengers directly or sent to their travel agent.