Organizer for Montreal-Mexico ‘party flight’ speaks out

“I would like to excuse myself for the people who didn’t follow the rules, and again, we’re taking action and we’ve banned these people from the group.”

The organizer of the December flight with Quebec influencers from Montreal to Cancún, Mexico, James William Awad, held a press conference Thursday, speaking publicly to the media for the first time since social media videos circulated in early January of the trip. They showed maskless passengers, dancing on seats, full bottles of alcohol visible, vaping, and more.

As a result, investigations were launched, including from Transport Canada, and 18 public health fines for not conforming to quarantine rules have since been issued – with five notices sent to the Quebec prosecutor’s office for possible charges.

Awad denies receiving any fines.

“Nobody faced fines, nobody faced jail time, and the investigation is still ongoing, so we’ll see what happens in the next few days.”

READ MORE:

• Some Quebec ‘party flight’ influencers return home from Cancun: reports
• Federal transport minister asks for investigation into Sunwing party flight to Mexico

After videos of the alleged public health violations were seen on social media, Air Canada, Air Transat, and Sunwing – the carrier of the Montreal-Mexico chartered flight – all said they were banning the passengers from their flights.

“They abandoned 154 Canadian citizens, 154 Quebecers, without knowing if they could afford another night in a hotel, without knowing if they could afford food the next day. They decided to abandon everybody because of a single article in the news.”

Awad blames public outrage and the media for making them all look bad, forcing the airline to take action.

He says he intends to file a lawsuit against Sunwing, but refused to share more details. “Right now we’re working on taking legal action against Sunwing, and we might be proceeding with Air Canada and Air Transat.”

CityNews reached out the airlines and Sunwing responded with a “no comment.”

The 28-year-old, who operates 111 Private Club, the group that organized the flight, repeated that he took several steps to ensure the safety of all individuals involved, but many, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, called out the travellers and was highly critical of the risks involved – especially during a pandemic.

“He’s our Prime Minister, I respect him and I can understand why he felt that way. He wants our security, he wants us to stay heathy. So, I don’t really have anything to say about what he said.”