MPs will hear testimony from Sunwing and other airline executives on Thursday in a highly anticipated committee meeting probing recent holiday travel delays.
Members of the House of Commons Transport, Infrastructure and Communities committee will meet on Jan. 12 to hear from not only the airline executives, but airport authorities, federal agencies and the minister of transport.
The committee met on Monday and agreed to undertake a study into the travel delays and the treatment of air and rail passengers, after thousands of Canadians faced cancellations and delays due to poor weather over the holiday break.
Read more:
‘Unacceptable’ travel chaos will face committee study. Here’s who MPs want to appear
Read next:
Petition seeks to recall B.C. Premier David Eby, calling him a ‘dictator’
From 10:30 a.m. to noon ET on Thursday, executives with Air Canada, WestJet and Sunwing will appear.
They include Kevin O’Connor, vice president of system operations control with Air Canada, and David Rheault, vice president of government and community relations at Air Canada; Andrew Gibbons, vice president of external affairs with WestJet, and Scott Wilson, vice president of flight operations at Westjet; and Len Corrado, president of Sunwing, and Andrew Dawson, president of tour operations at Sunwing Travel Group.
Last week, Corrado and Dawson apologized to customers in a joint statement for Sunwing’s role in holiday travel delays. Hundreds of Canadians were stranded in Mexico and other sunny destinations over the holidays when Sunwing cancelled flights due to a major winter storm.
Passengers described being shuffled between hotels, sometimes arriving to find there were no rooms booked for them. The stranded Canadians said Sunwing officials also passed along inaccurate and incomplete information about when they might be able to head home.
