'Horrendous': Saskatoon man stranded in Mexican parking lot overnight after flight cancellation

A Saskatoon man says he was left stranded overnight outside a Mexican airport after his flight was cancelled.

Joal Ebach was on his way home from a relaxing vacation in Cancun on Saturday when his nightmare began.

He said his flight was cancelled around 10 p.m., and passengers were told to leave the airport and meet Sunwing staff.

“We were told that Sunwing was waiting outside for us; they had buses for us and they were going to shuttle everybody to hotels. When we got outside that wasn’t the case at all,” he said.

Staff told passengers if they wanted help, they had to stay put, Ebach said. He says they waited for hours with no food or water.

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“There were a lot of couples with younger kids, a person in a wheelchair, a lot of elderly and they’re just sitting on the curb,” he said.

Ebach said he felt disrespected and ignored by staff. He repeatedly tried to call Sunwing for support, but could not get in contact with the airline.

He said he was eventually picked up at 4:30 a.m. and taken to a “sketchy” hotel in downtown Cancun.

“It was actually kind of a horrendous experience,” he said.

“It’s like Sunwing didn’t care whatsoever.”

Joal Ebach tells CTV News about how his dream Cancun vacation turned into a travel nightmare, March 26, 2024. (Stacey Hein / CTV News)

Gábor Lukács, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights, told CTV News the way Ebach was treated is unacceptable.

“It is the airline’s responsibility to provide meals and accommodations, so they cannot expect passengers to wait … for hours without water, without food, for some kind of ground transportation, that’s not acceptable,” he said.

Lukács says there needs to be more enforcement for airlines.

“The airlines find it more economical to disobey the law, and occasionally pay compensation to a few passengers, than to just systematically, consistently comply,” he said.

He encourages passengers to take videos of their interactions with staff and document their experiences.

CTV News reached out to Sunwing but did not get a response by publishing time.