It was necessary to be “imbecile” not to know that it was unacceptable to feast as did the passengers of the famous flight of December 30 to Cancun, argues the founder of Sunwing, Colin Hunter.
“How many planes can you get on where smoking is allowed and not wearing your mask?” », Launches the octogenarian entrepreneur during a telephone interview with The newspaper.
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“Anyone who says he didn’t know the rules must be a fool living under a molehill,” he adds with his usual verve.
Earlier this week, the business aviation broker who helped James William Awad find a plane for his now famous journey told the Journal that in his opinion, the rules in force on the flight were not clear enough.
“If they hadn’t been stupid enough to put this on social media, no one would have known about it and they could have had a good time and lived happily afterwards. By putting it on social media, it caught the attention of everyone, from Transport Canada to the Prime Minister of Canada, who should have better things to do, ”said Colin Hunter.
The businessman specifies that Sunwing did not deal directly with Mr. Awad for the charter of the aircraft. The broker sent the young man to the Quebec company Chrono Aviation, which called on Sunwing for the flight. The latter did not do any specific checks on James William Awad.
“If someone pays the deposit, you give them the plane,” says Sunwing’s founder and majority shareholder. I don’t think we normally do background checks on people who book a plane. There is no reason to do so. “
The veteran of the travel industry is not worried about the repercussions of this resounding flight for Sunwing.
“I don’t think our reputation has suffered as a result,” he says. It was a charter flight that got out of control. You know things like that can happen. You can’t expect four flight attendants to keep control of 140 people if they decide to get drunk and dance. We don’t have guns on the plane to force people back to their seats! “
A few days ago, Colin Hunter told La Presse that it would have been “very expensive” to land the plane urgently – comments that raised eyebrows.
“This decision usually rests with the commander. I made assumptions, that’s all, ”defends Mr. Hunter.
The latter owns 51% of the shares and 75% of the voting rights of Sunwing, while the German tourism giant TUI owns 49% of the shares and 25% of the voting rights of the company.
Joined by The newspaper, a spokesperson for TUI declined to comment on this affair, which has been around the world.
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