Sunwing Vacations contacting Cuba-Halifax passengers to apologize

Sunwing Vacations is contacting all passengers of aCuba-to-Halifax flight to apologize personally after the tripturned into a 20-hour nightmare that left some on board sobbing and vomiting.

Flight WG6735 was delayed leaving Cuba Thursday, then faced high winds whiletrying to land at Stanfield International Airport in Halifax that afternoon.

Passengers said the plane felt like it was coming in sideways and the pilot decided not to land.

Those on board said many on the flight were crying and some children were vomiting.

The flight was redirected to Fredericton, N.B., where passengers waited on the tarmac for about four hours before the plane took off for Moncton.

By the time the flight landed in Moncton, passengers said they had gone nearly10 hours without food. It would be another three hours before they would be loaded aboard buses to be taken to Halifax.

"We can confirm that we are in the process of contacting all customers on flight WG 635to extend our sincere apologies for their experience as a result of the weather delays and diversions of this flight," Sunwing Vacations spokeswoman Jacqueline Grossman said in an email statement to CBC News.

Anne Giles, a passenger on the flight, said she was called about 11:00 p.m. Friday by a Sunwing employee who was under the direction of company management. She said she questioned the company's policies and left the conversation feeling changes would be made.

Passengers are beingoffered vouchers for future travel with Sunwing, a gesture of "goodwill" the company said in its statement, as follow-up calls are made to everyone on the flight's manifest.

"We are pleased that our flight crew took the appropriate actions for the safety and well being of our customers, but remain apologetic for the inconvenience they experienced," the statement said.

That wasn't good enough for Giles, who says she will never travel with the airline again.

Sunwingsays the vouchers will either be emailedto passengers directlyor sent to their travel agent.