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The House of Commons transport committee is set to meet Thursday with representatives from Sunwing, WestJet and Air Canada along with members from the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver airport authorities.
The focus of their discussion will be what happened over the Christmas break.
Over the Christmas break, travel across the country was chaotic as passengers dealt with delays and flight cancellations because of staffing shortages and severe weather.
While the transport committee will hear from airports in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, it won’t be hearing directly from Saskatchewan’s airports. Instead, those facilities will be represented by the Canadian Airports Council.
Saskatchewan’s airports were some of the hardest hit in the country because of cancelled flights and Sunwing pulling out until at least February.
James Bogusz, the president and CEO of the Regina Airport Authority, had a simple message for the committee.
“This has been a very challenging number of weeks for passengers right across Canada and we’ve certainly seen our share of challenges here in Saskatchewan. In terms of what I would message out, it’s really about serving the passenger,” he said Tuesday.
“I think all of us here in Canada want to make sure passengers can freely flow between different cities and to make sure they can visit friends and family.”
Saskatchewan’s airports were hit hard by the Sunwing cancellations when the airline decided to pull out of the province’s two major markets.
While it’s frustrating for Bogusz and travellers, he said the move by the airline is out of the airport’s control.
“It’s very disappointing news. Having so many people disrupted for the month of January and into the early days of February is a huge challenge for those booking vacations or other events,” he said. “Ultimately, the decision to operate flights is with the airline.”
Bogusz said fines aren’t an option for airports to levy against the airlines.
“Airlines are truly commercial businesses unto themselves. We manage the facility here at the airport and ensure the structure’s in place so they can safely operate their business, but at the end of the day, it’s their business decision,” he explained.
“So no, the airport doesn’t levy fines or penalties to an airline making their own business decisions, but it doesn’t mean we’re happy about it. We do not want to see the loss of critical air service to sun destinations that many of our residents not only use but depend on.”
With the delays mostly over, Bogusz noted traffic at the airport has returned to mostly normal operations other than the Sunwing incidents.
He’s hopeful Sunwing will return in February like it said it would.