Transport committee to meet over request to probe holiday travel chaos – National

Parliamentarians are meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss whether to open a study into the travel fiasco that affected Canadians over the winter holiday period.

The standing committee on transport, infrastructure and communities is going to be discussing the request from several members for it to launch a study on travel delays and the treatment of air and rail passengers, after thousands of Canadians faced cancellations and delays due to poor weather.

Liberal committee chair Peter Schiefke made the request and will be leading the meeting. He says he wants Sunwing and Via Rail before the committee to answer questions about their handling of the winter storm travel disruptions last month, calling the treatment “unacceptable.”

The meeting on Monday is expected to see members of the committee discuss the request for a study and debate a list of potential witnesses to call and give testimony.

In an exclusive interview with Global News Thursday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said, if asked, he would testify before the committee on the travel disruptions.

This comes as hundreds of Canadian travellers were left stranded in Mexico and other sunny destinations, after a major winter storm over Christmas disrupted operations.

After Sunwing cancelled flights, some Canadians described being shuffled between hotels in Mexico, sometimes arriving to find there were no rooms booked for them. They said Sunwing officials passed along inaccurate and incomplete information about when they might be able to head home.

On Thursday, Sunwing said it had completed all recovery flights related to the holiday disruption and apologized for “letting our customers down”.

“We are astutely aware that, for too many Canadians, we failed to live up to that promise this holiday season,” Sunwing Travel Group CEO Stephen Hunter and Sunwing…