Saskatoon passengers dismayed by untimely winter flight cancellations

Now that her most-recent term has wrapped up, Ricayla Robertson thought she’d be in the warm embrace of the Hawaiian air by Tuesday night.

Instead, the University of Saskatchewan student will spend at least a few more days in Saskatoon’s deep freeze.

The student was set to board a flight to Vancouver on Tuesday morning before jetting off to Kahului. Flights to Vancouver and Calgary from various cities across Canada were cancelled due to weather issues.

“My family’s already in Kahului so I kind of wanted to go today,” she said, noting the next flight she can likely get is in two days.

Robertson’s attempts to hail a cab were going about as well as her flight’s departure on Tuesday.

“No cab is coming,” she said with a laugh. “So yeah, it’s been a crappy day.”

Robertson’s break from her studies is less than two weeks long, making the loss of a few extra days even more frustrating for her.

“It sucks,” she said.

The situation was perhaps even more frustrating for passengers who were already supposed to be in B.C.

Elias Irias was all set to board his flight to return to his home in Abbotsford on Saturday after spending two weeks visiting his mom in Saskatoon. However, he was told some luggage belonging to people on his flight wouldn’t be making it to Vancouver on the same day.

Irias said passengers were given the option to disembark from the flight and reschedule their departure for Tuesday if they wished to fly with their baggage. He said he was told there would be no extra fees for passengers who elected to give up their seat Saturday in favour of the flight two days later.

Knowing his trek between Abbotsford and Vancouver would be more than an hour both ways, Irias thought he’d be saving himself hassle later on.

Taking the option, Irias said he spoke with an agent on his way out who told him he would be on the Tuesday flight after reviewing his ticket and flight information.

On top of Tuesday’s flight being cancelled, Irias and his mother, Kelly Vornbrock, said it appeared Irias had not been rebooked on the Tuesday flight.

“I need to get back to work,” Irias said. “I’ve already missed two days this week.”

“I’m frustrated because I’m supposed to be leaving on a trip, too,” Vornbrock added. “And now I don’t know what to do with him because he’s got to get back to Vancouver.”

CJ Dushinski with the Saskatoon airport confirmed there was a “security incident” at the airport on Saturday that shut down its oversized baggage area for several hours.

She said as a result, some passengers with Flair Airlines that day were not able to get their oversized bags on the flight before it departed. All regular luggage and passengers were processed normally, however.

Dushinski said the airport cannot specifically comment on Flair Airlines’ rebooking of passengers after Saturday’s incident or Tuesday’s cancellations.

The earliest flight Irias could hope to catch next is on Saturday — Christmas Eve.

“Now I don’t even think I’m going to get to work this week. It’s just really frustrating,” Irias said.

Aaron Thiesen was looking forward to returning home for Christmas, but he’s looking at the same timeline to fly now. He and his partner are originally from B.C. but moved to Saskatchewan three months ago.

“It kind of sucks,” he said. “What are you going to do, though?”

Thiesen said they’ll probably opt to take the Christmas Eve flight, despite how late their departure will be before the holidays.

“We have to change all our plans,” he said.