MINNEAPOLIS _ Sun Country Airlines said Tuesday it will pay the additional travel costs faced by the approximately 250 passengers who were left stranded in Mexico by two snowstorm-related flight cancellations this weekend.
In addition to refunds the Eagan, Minn.-based airline previously offered to the passengers, Sun Country will cover "additional reasonable transportation costs," including any difference they paid to rebook on another carrier, as well as taxis, shuttles or other expenses for getting to and from the airport, Jude Bricker, the airline's chief executive, said.
The airline received numerous complaints from the passengers and other air travelers for its handling of the cancellations, which was exacerbated by the staffing problems caused by the snowstorm that shut down Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and by a seasonal switch in Sun Country's routes that happened over the weekend.
In a memo to Sun Country employees, Bricker said all passengers who were left in Los Cabos and Mazatlan Saturday without a flight back to Minnesota will have received an email, voice mail or had a conversation with the airline by the end of the day Tuesday alerting them of the additional financial support.
"The past several days we have been hard at work to make contact with these passengers," Bricker said. "We are committed to finding them a way home."
He also said the airline needs to improve its systems to better respond in weather-related crises.
"We need to find ways to improve our customer communications as we failed in that area," he wrote. "Even if we had been able to staff per the plan, we could have not handled the roughly 6,000 passengers who were affected by a canceled flight."
Customers in Mazatlan and Los Cabos weren't the only ones who faced flight cancellations during last weekend's snowstorm, the largest seen in the Twin Cities in any April.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was closed for nine hours Saturday, leading to 495 flight cancellations, including 25 Sun Country flights. This rippled into Sunday with another 315 flight cancellations at MSP, 15 for Sun Country.
"There were many other customers who were inconvenienced that understandably wanted to talk to us over the weekend," Bricker said. "Clearly, going forward, we need to improve our ability to handle stresses to our system like what we experienced over the weekend."
