Tourists stuck in paradise after Skyservice shuts down

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This article was published 01/04/2010 (5959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TRAVELLERS are stranded in paradise after the surprise shutdown of one of the country’s top charter airlines.

On Wednesday morning, an Ontario court sent Skyservice Airlines into receivership, grounding its 17 planes and terminating all its operations. That sent major tour operators including Signature Vacations, Sunquest Vacations and Transat scurrying to commandeer aircraft to get their customers home on time.

Winnipegger Ron Cantiveros was relaxing near a resort pool when a Twitter feed on his phone informed him the carrier that had brought him to a wedding in Cancun had gone out of business. A travel agent friend put in a call to the vice-president of Transat to see if the group of 17 would leave on Saturday as planned.

"They said they’ll be taking care of us," said Cantiveros, 36, a photographer and publisher of the Filipino Journal. "I’m confident we’re going to make it home. As to whether or not it’s before or after Saturday…, I don’t know. But being stuck in Cancun for an extra couple of days isn’t that bad. I’m not worried to a certain extent. Ask me on Saturday if I still don’t have a flight, and things might be different."

One scheduled flight out of the Winnipeg airport — an 8 a.m. trip to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic — was delayed until at least 8 p.m. Wednesday. But by late afternoon, the flight had been bumped back again, to 5:50 a.m. today.

While some disgruntled patrons were left stranded in tropical airports, Winnipeg travel experts said the fallout won’t last long.

"We are lucky that these are big players. They’ve got contacts with airlines all over the world," said Ron Pradinuk, president of Journeys Travel & Leisure SuperCentre. He said those who travelled Wednesday will be most affected. "There’s going to be a significant blip, but I don’t think it will affect anything over a week from now."

By Wednesday afternoon, two of Skyservice’s biggest clients — Signature and Sunquest — announced they had already made headway in rescheduling their tourists on other aircraft. A press release circulated Wednesday said planes had been found to bring all of Sunquest’s clients home. The only Sunquest flights affected originated in Toronto and Winnipeg.

The fact that Skyservice’s closure came as tour operators were winding up the busy winter season helped ease the pressure, said Thomas Cook North America CEO Michael Friisdahl, whose company owns Sunquest. "We have long-established relationships with a number of flying partners and we are able to turn to these partners to quickly and seamlessly arrange alternate flights for our customers scheduled to travel with Skyservice."

The shutdown came after debt issues and "recent changes in the Canadian vacation tour market," Skyservice said in a release on Wednesday. About 860 workers will be affected by the private company’s bust.

 

— with files from The Canadian Press

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca