Sunwing fined almost $700,000 for widespread service issues during April ice storm

Sunwing has been fined almost $700,000 after widespread service issues on a number of flights between Toronto and Montreal during a spring ice storm last April.

A Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) inquiry found 77 Sunwing flights were delayed by more than four hours, and 43 flights were delayed by more than eight hours between April 14 and 18, 2018. Not all passengers were compensated for the delays.

The CTA also found Sunwing failed to properly communicate with passengers about delays, schedule changes and the status of lost luggage. It also said Sunwing didn’t inform all passengers of the option of disembarking from an aircraft if a delay exceeds 90 minutes and it is safe and practical to do so.

“The Agency finds that in 14 of the 15 flights, passengers were not provided the opportunity to disembark,” the report said.

Air travel was affected by a severe ice storm that hit Ontario and Quebec during the four days the inquiry covered, but the CTA said the inclement weather doesn’t fully absolve Sunwing.

Sunwing will have to compensate passengers for any “reasonable expenses” incurred during the delays. These include hotel accommodations, meal expenses, and expenses for lost, delayed or damaged baggage.

There were 574 active complaints filed by individual passengers and Sunwing is required to make every effort to contact the passengers and settle expense claims, whether they submitted complaints or not.

The airline has until May 10 to pay the penalty of $694,500 as well.

It will also be required to prepare a contingency plan to ensure it meets all its tariff obligations in future cases of “widespread flight disruptions,” by Aug. 30.

Sunwing responded with a statement that said “the CTA has acknowledged that this disruption in service was chiefly caused by two external factors listed as severe weather conditions and critical staffing shortage on the part of our ground handling service provider, Swissport, as well as two internal factors which were listed as Sunwing’s business model and communication issues,”

“Since the storm occurred, Sunwing has changed ground handler, invested in new commercial operations leadership, and has worked to onboard new industry leading systems to better manage scheduling, contingency planning, and communications during disruptions,” the statement said.

The company also says that it “delays flights instead of cancelling them” and that it “provides compensation and options up to the point of cancelling for a full refund in the event of a delay exceeding 12 hours.”

CTA CEO, Scott Streiner, called the determination significant for air passengers and air carriers.

“It underscores that passengers have rights and recourse when their air travel is disrupted, and that even when problems stem from events such as bad weather, there is a minimum standard of treatment to which all passengers are entitled,” Streiner said in a press release.