Ripple effect from storms across Canada hammers air travellers in Saskatchewan

On a scale of one to 10, Lidia Matei says, her level of frustration has reached 100 — and her emotional pain is even higher. 

She is among the many travellers grounded in Saskatoon, while her sick mother, 72, waits for her in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. She was supposed to arrive there on Dec. 21, but complications with Canadian air travel interrupted the plan. 

"It's extremely emotional. It's extremely hurtful and painful," she said. 

Matei's voice breaks as she explains that her mom has mestastic Stage 4 cancer. 

She had planned the trip from Dec. 21-28 as a special holiday reunion for her, her mom and her 17-year-old daughter who also has health complications and autism.

Matei's mother lives in the U.S., so the trio hasn't been able to connect since before the pandemic closed international borders. She says the trip was about so much more than a sunny getaway. 

"It was not just to have fun. We never know when this will — if it ever can happen again, because my mom has chemotherapy every three weeks, and she is suffering," she said. 

"It's heartbreaking."

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When Matei and her daughter arrived at the airport on Dec. 21, they were told their Sunwinmg flight had been delayed because the airline said it lacked a crew and a plane. It was rescheduled for Thursday, but the same thing happened.

When Matei showed up at the airport on Friday, there were no Sunwing representatives on site. 

Now, she is doubtful she will be able to reunite with her mother even for a few days. 

"I just hope that Sunwing understands and that they will take the right measures, at least, to try to compensate and help us out, to deal with everything properly and respectfully," she said. 

"It's not just a ticket. It's not just a vacation … those CEOs, they have to be aware of that when they take the money." 

Sunwing did not respond to CBC's request for comment by time of publication. 

Situation expected to worsen

In Saskatoon, about  40 per cent of all flights have been affected by storms across Canada. 

"If you have received a flight cancellation notice, passengers are asked to await further communication from their airline before making their way to the airport," a spokesperson for the Saskatoon airport said. 

"Currently, in many cases, airline re-bookings are taking many days. The situation is not expected to improve drastically in the immediate future." 

At Regina's airport, about 30 per cent of flights have been cancelled and more than 60 per cent have been delayed. 

"The airlines are working to try and refund or reaccommodate customers, but reaccommodating options are incredibly limited with flights already being very full due to the holiday season and the sheer volume of passengers who need them," a Regina Airport spokesperson said. 

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"Each airline has different instructions for what to do if your flight has been impacted, and we are strongly encouraging customers to follow those instructions as their staff at the airports are limited in what they can even do."

Thousands of flights have been cancelled at major airports including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. 

Stranded ravellers encourage kindness 

​Jared and Ksenia Regel were supposed to fly home to Regina from Mexico on Dec. 19, but because of delays they didn't get home until Thursday night. 

"You spent three extra days hanging out in Cancun, so it's kind of hard to complain about, but there's no place like home," Jared said. 

And the extra days there weren't spent lounging on the beach. 

The couple and Mark, their four-year-old son, were bounced between the airport — where they would wait for hours only to be told the plane wasn't coming — and hotels. 

Since they couldn't check in at the airport without a plane, they couldn't wait in the area of the airport offering food and shopping. 

The airport wasn't the only place in chaos, the Regels say. Hotels were overflowing and the traffic near the airport was so snarled people coming for departure were walking there from kilometres away. 

Automatic notifications for their flight stopped coming in, the couple say. They tried to call Sunwing in Canada and were redirected to the office in Mexico. 

Ksenia says they were hung up on after spending 30 minutes on hold. She also noticed that customer options for the generic call line greeting began at "two for Spanish," as if they removed option one for service in Englsih. 

The couple said it seemed like "the entire system collapsed."

The couple advised travellers who are also stranded to connect with other people on the same flight, because the airline was saying very little. 

They also encouraged people to remain calm. 

"Patience is probably the key. I think there was quite a few people that were getting quite upset with the agents," Jared said. 

"Just because they are representatives or work for Sunwing, for example at the desk, they likely don't have more information than they're already giving you."