Sunwing Airlines system issue forces numerous flight delays at Montreal airport

Multiple Sunwing Airlines flights heading in and out of Montreal have been delayed due to technical issues Monday, leaving people stranded at various airports.

The airline took to Twitter to explain that its provider is experiencing "a network-wide system issue, which has impacted check-in and boarding."

"They have to hand-write everything, like all their boarding passes are handwritten," said one traveller, Brendan Mikan, who was supposed to fly to Costa Rica.

As of 12 p.m., five Sunwing arrivals were delayed and at least four departures were stalled.

More were delayed through the afternoon and by 6:30 p.m., many travellers were given a hotel voucher and told they wouldn't be leaving until the morning.

One Quebecer stuck in Mexico says she's stranded with no information as to how she'll eventually get home.

She says her flight was supposed to be Sunday at 4:10 p.m. but was rescheduled to 6 a.m., and then 2 p.m. Monday.

"We're not sure if we can make the flight today," she said. "All the Sunwing employees here can't help us. Instead, they are selling tours and excursions."

Sunwing says it plans to provide further updates "as needed."

It is encouraging anyone planning to travel in the next 24 hours to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

However, even some of those who have been carefully checking their flight information say they are still finding themselves stuck at faraway airports.

Mikan, who is trying to leave for a vacation in Costa Rica, says Sunwing's online announcement showed his flight was delayed by just two hours.

"Then when we got there, they advised that the systems weren't working in terms of checking and they couldn't check in our luggage. They couldn't give us our boarding passes," he said. "So, we were stuck, right?"

Right now, he's scheduled to fly through Toronto and arrive at midnight but things keep changing, he says, describing a chaotic situation at the Montreal airport, with "hundreds of people" sitting on the ground, waiting for news to "trickle down."

"It just really sucks right? Because... we have a seven-day trip. So, we're losing our first day," he said. "They've been experiencing these issues since yesterday but no one told us, no one contacted us."

PASSENGERS STRANDED IN MEXICO

Rahat Yasir is one passenger who was stranded at the airport in Cancun on Sunday with his partner after their flight was cancelled.

He says even though it was the flight home that was disrupted, "it almost ruined the experience of the vacation."

He says his flight from Cancun to Montreal was supposed to be at 4 p.m., but by 11:30 p.m. staff had put them in another hotel about an hour and a half away from the airport for the night. They were told a shuttle would bring them back for 4:30 a.m.

Then, he says he was told the shuttle wouldn't come until 6:30 a.m. Frustrated with how Sunwing handled the situation, he decided to book another flight with Air Canada.

LISTEN ON CJAD 800 RADIO: Sunwing chaos: Hundreds of passengers are stuck at either end of their sunny destination vacations because of a network glitch

He says he saw the aftermath of the Sunwing delays at the Cancun airport.

"It was really sad to see. A lot of people [were] there with small kids... and they were not taken care of properly," Yasir told CTV News after landing in Montreal Monday afternoon. "The sad part was that there were older people, there was no wheelchair for them, there were kids, they were crying and there was no food, there was no water. So it was not fun. It was not fun at all."

He says he won't choose Sunwing for his next vacation because of the ordeal.

"It was not fun to be stranded in a foreign airport, where no one is answering our calls," he said.