Hundreds of Canadians left stranded by Sunwing for hours at Punta Cana airport

More than 250 Canadian passengers were relieved to be home on Friday after spending more than 10 hours stranded at Punta Cana International Airport by Sunwing.

Those CityNews spoke with said they were left outside in the blazing heat without food and water.

“Keep in mind the airport is outdoors. There are a bunch of big fans spinning around, but it doesn’t compensate for the humidity and the heat … even at 4 or 5 a.m.,” said Gianluca Lavorgna at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

A group of Canadians flying Sunwing dealt with multiple delays stretching over three days.

“It was one of the most horrendous experiences I’ve ever had and I’ve been travelling for a very long time,” said Nadine Khalaf.

Khalaf said she went with her boyfriend to Punta Cana on a graduation trip. They were supposed to be back in Toronto on Wednesday. With the first delay, they were able to stay at their resort but that wasn’t the case for the following delays.

“There were lots of children crying — that was really hard to see because they couldn’t drink water. Their moms couldn’t feed them or anything like that,” she said.

“People were sleeping on the benches. We slept on the bench because we got so tired. People were sleeping on the floor… babies were sleeping on the floor.”

Salvatore Mazzucco described the incident as a scary experience.

“Some lady who actually was on the phone with a Sunwing representative fainted because of the heat and an ambulance had to come,” he recalled.

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Conall Helverson told CityNews a flight back to Toronto was supposed to leave at 3:15 a.m. before being pushed to 7:20 a.m. and then 9:30 a.m.

“We got to the airport roughly at 12:45 a.m. Nobody was there, everything was closed — no water, no food. It was hot, it was humid, and they were basically like, ‘You have to wait here,'” he said.

CityNews contacted Sunwing for comment on this story. A spokesperson said the company is aware of the incident and acknowledged that flight delays are being brought on by an unprecedented level of crew restraints.

“The length of the delays would not allow for enough time to shuttle passengers back to their hotels and then back to the airport in time to check in for their new return flight home,” the spokesperson said.

“In ordinary circumstances, passengers would receive vouchers to purchase meals and refreshments at the airport, however, airport vendors were closed during the period of time that our customers were waiting to board their flight. Impacted passengers are entitled to compensation.”

Helverson said he feels the airline was simply trying to save money by avoiding hotel costs.

“All they had to do was call the hotline that I know is starred at the top of all of their phones and say, ‘Hey, turn the bus around. Hey, don’t leave yet,'” he said.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra was asked about the challenges of travelling right now locally and around the world.

“Many airports and airlines have had to deal with the same surge in demand and lack of labour, but that doesn’t necessarily offer me any comfort. At the end of the day, I want to make sure that Canadian travellers are able to travel peacefully and enjoyably,” he said.

However, that was not the case for this group of Canadians.

“It was such a beautiful trip and it’s so sad that it had to end this way. It’s horrible, I’m actually really upset,” said Khalaf.

Other passengers CityNews spoke with said while they expect to be compensated for what they went through, it won’t make up for the hassle or the headache.