Sunwing continues to work on getting through its flight backlog in the wake of a system outage after the server networks belonging to its third-party service provider, Airline Choice, were hit with a data security breach.

Sunwing is checking in passengers manually. Some 26 planes departed yesterday during the day, with another six last night, said Sunwing. The day before, there were 34 departures. “Our teams have been working hard to get more planes off the ground today,” said Sunwing.

Sunwing has subcontracted aircraft from WestJet, Transat and Nolinor Aviation.

Sunwing is offering impacted passengers the ability to make a one-time change to their departure date with no fees. The no change fees apply to Sunwing bookings with originally scheduled departure dates April 19 – 22, 2022, and is valid for travel up to June 23, 2022. System rates apply for new travel dates. Clients looking to change their departure date for southbound travel are asked to call their travel advisor or the Sunwing Sales Centre at 1-877-786-9464.

Travellers already in destination who would like to change their return flight home are asked to contact their local Sunwing Experiences rep at their hotel.

Sunwing adds that all passengers with flight delays over three hours for reasons within carrier control will be compensated accordingly. The link for more info is: unwing.ca/en/sunwing-airlines/delay-claim.

The U.S.-based Airline Choice provides airlines with a technological platform aimed at streamlining the passenger handling, self-service and compliance process. Airline Choice described the breach as a “data security event” that affected a limited number of its computer systems.

“As a precaution, we took certain systems offline to secure our environment. We also immediately launched an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the event,” the company said.

Airline Choice added it has already begun restoring functionality to its systems and will be working around the clock until that is complete.

With file from The Canadian Press and Travelweek