Canadian airlines flying passengers home ahead of Hurricane Irma

CTVNews.ca Staff</span>
Published Wednesday, September 6, 2017 1:17AM EDT
Last Updated Wednesday, September 6, 2017 12:34PM EDT

Several Canadian airlines are helping customers get out of the path of mighty Hurricane Irma as it plows through the Caribbean on its way to Florida.

The most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history made landfall in Antigua and Barbuda Wednesday morning, with sustained maximum wind speeds hitting high of 295 kilometres an hour. The Category 5 storm is expected to cause catastrophic damage in some areas, and has prompted the Canadian government to issue several advisories warning against travel to areas in its path.

Air Transat, Sunwing and Air Canada have sent several empty aircraft to the affected area in order to get travellers out before the storm hits.

Air Transat says 10 aircraft were sent to the Dominican Republic to load passengers Wednesday morning.

By noon, seven aircraft left Punta Cana, two left Puerto Plata and one left Samana on their way back to Canada, Air Transat said.

Air Canada says it’s cancelled a number of flights for later in the week, and is instead sending those aircraft down to pick up customers who want to change their tickets ahead of the storm. Air Canada is waiving the cost of changing flights in order to accommodate these passengers.

“We have operated some extra flights to immediately affected areas, such as Antigua and Provindenciales, to bring customers home early, and more flights for this purpose are planned,” Peter Fitzpatrick, media relations with Air Canada, said in an email Wednesday.

He added that larger aircraft are being sent to other destinations in the storm’s path, such as Cuba and Florida, “to be sure there is space for people wishing to travel.”

Air Transat says it’s also looking at sending planes to Cuba and Florida ahead of the storm.

Sunwing says it’s activated plans to bring customers home from all destinations under a hurricane watch or warning. Two flights were sent to St. Maarten to evacuate passengers on Tuesday, while two other flights went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to retrieve passengers originally scheduled to leave on Sept. 6 or 7. A Sept. 8 flight to Puerto Plata was also cancelled.

Sunwing says it has not cancelled flights to Cuba, the Bahamas or Florida, and that passengers scheduled to come home on those flights will be allowed to take advantage of the airline’s hurricane policy.

The airlines say they do not know, at this point, how many people are headed home on flights from the Caribbean.

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