Waiting on their wings

Ed Stemkoski and his family knew when they were told to see an agent when picking up their boarding passes at Winnipeg’s airport Christmas morning that they were, in his words, “screwed.”

Stemkoski, his wife and three daughters arrived at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport Sunday for a flight to Calgary, with the goal of getting to Palm Springs, Calif., by that afternoon. When they got out of the car and walked into the airport, both their flights were scheduled on time. Within the next two hours, their flight to Calgary was delayed until 5 p.m., and their flight from Calgary to Palm Springs had been cancelled.

“It’s good to at least be stranded at home, versus being stranded in Calgary,” he said.

The family is disappointed, but not alone. Christmas Day departures at the airport was a visibly hectic scene Sunday morning, with long lines, people huddled in corners trying to reach their airlines to plan new flights or cancel old ones, and families taking to the scattered seating or the floor while they waited hours for updates.

“Now that we’re here, we’ve seen so many families turn around and leave disappointed, people crying and upset,” Stemkoski said. “It’s sad.”

His family has no choice but to return home, where they hoped to join a Christmas dinner with friends. Their best hope at this point is getting a new flight into Edmonton on Thursday, or committing to the 30-hour drive to Palm Springs.

“We’re going to spend Christmas Day on the phone. And (when we) go home now, you’ve got no groceries, you were leaving for two weeks, the house is dry,” he said.

“So it’s kind of a lousy way to spend Christmas.”

Major Canadian airlines have pre-emptively cancelled multiple flights in the past few days in the wake of winter storms all across Canada. By Sunday evening, five flights out of the Winnipeg airport had been cancelled and nine had been delayed.

“With these storms these last couple days, and the days ahead, we know there’s a good chance there could be more cancellations and delays,” Winnipeg Airports Authority communications manager Michel Rosset said.

“The biggest thing for anyone planning to travel for the rest of today, or the rest of the holidays, is to keep a close eye on the status of their flight.”

Some say they never received a cancellation notice from their airline at all.

Bharatbhai and Meenaben Patel were trying to get home to India after a six-month visit before their visitor visa insurance expires Tuesday. The pair, who came to Winnipeg to see their son and daughter-in-law, were supposed to be traveling to Montreal, then to New Delhi, but they weren’t informed of their flight cancellation until they arrived at the airport, family friend Khushbu Patel explained.

“We’re not getting any answers from them – where is our next flight? And in the airport, they are also not (explaining) anything like when we will get the new flights,” she said.

This is their second attempt to get on a flight to Montreal since their first scheduled flight Saturday. Getting the elderly pair, who don’t speak fluent English, to the airport is an ordeal they didn’t want to have to go through again.

“We don’t know what we can do,” she said.

The WAA is asking that people who do receive that cancellation notice stay home and not come to the airport.

In the midst of the chaotic scene at the airport, some kept a sunny disposition.

“You know what? I feel OK. I really do. We slept better last night. We’re optimistic and hopeful,” Chelsie Zylstra said from the departures floor while rocking her one-year-old’s stroller and watching her three-year-old explore.

Zylstra, her husband and two young sons drove in from Killarney to catch a flight to Ontario to visit family. Flights were booked for midday Saturday, so they drove in on Friday afternoon and stayed at a hotel. Their flight was cancelled. They were given a later flight, which was also cancelled.

Sunday morning, they found a flight for Sunday night at 8 p.m., and they checked out of their hotel — so the plan was to wait in the airport for seven hours.

“We did a little drive around out to the highway and back, kids did their car ride naps, and we’re going to make it through the airport today,” she said.

She’s still optimistic she’ll be able to visit her family for the holidays.

“We’re going to make it,” she said. “We’ve made it this far, right?”

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