Sunwing cancelling Sudbury, North Bay service again

CTV News confirmed Thursday afternoon Sunwing is cancelling all flights out of Sudbury and North Bay starting Feb. 1.

The vacation company will discontinue flights from Sudbury to the Dominican Republic and from North Bay to Cuba as part of the change.

"Due to extenuating circumstances, we regret to inform our customers in Sudbury and North Bay that we are cancelling our winter program from both airports, effective Feb. 1. This impacts weekly flights from Sudbury to Punta Cana starting on Feb. 1 and from North Bay to Varadero starting on Feb. 2," Sunwing told CTV News in an email.

"We sincerely apologize to our valued customers and airport partners in Sudbury and North Bay for the inconvenience and disruption. The difficult decision to cancel winter flights beginning in February was deemed necessary due to operational and business constraints that would prevent us from delivering the standards of service our customers expect when travelling with Sunwing."

This comes just a month after Sunwing resumed service in the two northern Ontario cities last month.

Affected customers can transfer vacation packages to same-day departures out of Toronto and will receive a $100 CAD credit for future travel, the company said.

"Alternatively, customers can choose to cancel their vacations for a full refund to their original form of payment, if preferred. Customers can contact their local travel agent or the Sunwing Sales Centre at 1-877-786-9464 to change their departure gateway or initiate their cancellation," Sunwing said.

Chris Mayne, manager of Mayne Travel, told CTV's Eric Taschner that about 60 of their customers are affected and they'e eligible for refunds. He said the news came as a surprise.

"On Tuesday we noticed that no one was able to book from North Bay to Veradaro in the month of February and March," Mayne said.

"We received the email from them yesterday afternoon."

Donna Backer, of the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce, said the decision is disappointing.

"We don't know why the decisions were made to do that and it would be great if northern Ontario wouldn't have to be cut from the service," Backer said.

"Obviously until we hear more details on the reasons why, we're still very disappointed that this decision was made by Sunwing."

Giovanna Verrilli, Sudbury Airport CEO, said they are “incredibly disappointed” by the news.

“More importantly we are more concerned about our passengers and their experience,” Verrilli said.

“We trust that Sunwing will take care of each and every one of those passengers affected.”

“We’ve worked very hard over the last few months to rebuild passenger confidence or to work towards rebuilding passenger confidence in aviation and in particular, out of Sudbury airport and this takes us several steps back,” Verrilli added. 

The company said it will work to re-establish flights from Sudbury and North Bay next winter.

And last month, Sunwing apologized to passengers who were left stranded for days during the holidays after a winter storm. As a result of the chaos, a group of about 750 customers is considering a class-action lawsuit against the travel provider.

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