Frustrated passengers on a Sunwing flight that was supposed to return to Toronto today say they are temporarily stranded in Mexico while they wait for the airline to get them home.
Travellers say for hours they sat in an unairconditioned plane on the tarmac at the airport in Cancun while they waited to depart. They say eventually their flight was cancelled.
Ulises Concepcion Velazquez, one of the stranded passengers, told CP24 that travellers were trapped on the plane for more than two hours.
“The heat was truly bad and we asked several times for them to let us out,” she said.
In addition to the lengthy delay for the return flight, Velazquez said it took her family 20 hours to get to Mexico from Toronto.
In an emailed statement sent Friday night, a spokesperson for Sunwing said mechanical issues are to blame for the delay.
“Since the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, regrettably some of our regular operations have been disrupted as we have had to sub contract the services of other carriers, such as Eastern Airlines,” the spokesperson said.
Sunwing said the same mechanical issue that delayed the Eastern Airlines flight from Cancun to Toronto today also affected the air-conditioning on board the plane.
“Passengers were deplaned while technicians attempted to rectify the issue on site. Unfortunately, it was established that the plane could not be made serviceable today.”
Sunwing says the flight is now scheduled to depart early Saturday morning and all passengers have been put up in an all-inclusive resort for the night.
“We remain extremely apologetic for the delay to today’s service and will be offering our customers compensation,” the statement concluded.
