Yorkton travel agent ‘devastated’ by Sunwing cancellations

By Brett Lubkiwski

The latest announcement from Sunwing to cut most of its flights from Regina International Airport to sunny destinations is affecting people all around the province.

As of Feb. 4, Sunwing will operate only a handful of flights out of YQR, including a weekly Sunday departure to Puerto Vallarta.

Tammy Biblow, the owner of Vacations Yorkton, made a heartfelt post to the company’s Facebook page to express her frustrations as well as her sympathy for her clients.

“We absolutely don’t have the words for this right now. We are so devastated for you all and for our business …We need time to go through this mess,” Biblow wrote in her Facebook post.

In a subsequent interview, Biblow said Vacations Yorkton had been hit hard by the cancellations announced in December and on Tuesday, with the company having a large number of clients affected.

“We’re still just doing the calculations, but in the last two months, our agency alone has had well over 500 (clients affected),” Biblow said.

Sunwing said passengers could change their flights to fly out of Winnipeg, Saskatoon or any other Canadian city on the same day as their original flights with no additional charge, or they can get a full refund.

Sunwing’s statement claims it made the decision to cancel more flights “due to operational and business constraints.” Biblow said a big reason is a shortage of staff.

“I do know that we have a shortage of pilots in our country … There was a denied application for foreign pilots to come over (to Canada),” Biblow said.

Biblow said while it’s disappointing the airline is cutting flights, she isn’t surprised that Sunwing made the decision based on Saskatchewan’s lower population.

“We are at the low end of the spectrum when it comes to generating a lot of income for them. You know that we are going to be the first cut. It’s devastating,” Biblow said.

After the previous two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Biblow said she knows people in the province love to travel and for some this was their first chance in three years.

“We have so many people … (who) this is their first time seeing their family since COVID, the first trip since COVID. It’s very difficult and it’s hard to even wrap our heads around how or why this is happening to us right now,” said Biblow.

Sunwing is not the only airline to cut travel out of Regina, with Air Canada cutting flights to and from Calgary as of this week.