Thousands stranded here by Canada 3000 shutdown

Advertiser Staff and News Services

More than 3,000 passengers of Canada 3000, Canada's second-largest airline, were left stranded in Hawai'i yesterday after the carrier abruptly shut down and canceled flights.

A Canada 3000 passenger notice conveyed startling news yesterday at Honolulu International Airport. The company's jets will remain grounded until at least Tuesday, when a hearing on the carrier's fate is scheduled. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Marilyn Kali, state Transportation Department spokeswoman, said the Hawaii Hotel Association and visitors bureaus on Maui and O'ahu have been helping to find discounted hotel rates for the stranded travelers until they can fly home.

Suzanne Meisenzahl of Connoisseur Holidays, a Honolulu travel agency, said yesterday she had helped about two-dozen stranded passengers book new flights out on Air Canada. Meisenzahl said Signature Vacations of Canada is paying for the new tickets for stranded Canada 3000 passengers.

But the unexpected closure upset some passengers like Carol Boham, who is visiting Hawai'i for the 28th time with her husband, Jack.

"I feel really upset, because I'm the type of person that likes everything tied up in little boxes, all the ribbons tied and all the corners tucked," said Boham, 56, who arrived in the Islands Oct. 12 and plans to leave Dec. 2 for the couple's home in Banff, Alberta. The Bohams had made previous trips on Canada 3000 largely because they preferred its departure and arrival times to those of other airlines, she said.

Boham, who is staying in Waikiki, said her travel agent has already found an Air Canada flight leaving Dec. 2, but that the change likely will cost the couple several hundred dollars more.

The grounding of Canada 3000's 38-plane fleet came as the airline filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to reach an agreement with unions to cut costs.

Officials said yesterday that the carrier is in talks with creditors and the federal government to forge a financial rescue plan that would allow the airline to resume flights, but the company's jets will remain grounded until at least Tuesday, when another hearing is scheduled in a Toronto court.

A judge ordered Canada 3000 planes to return to Canadian airports, where they must stay pending the hearing.

The company said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States cut travel bookings by as much as half. Since the attacks, bookings have ranged between 46,246 and 65,824 a week, the company said in court documents. Before the assaults, the carrier said it had about 95,000 a week.

That wasn't the only problem, some analysts said. Canada 3000 got into trouble by attempting to take on Air Canada, said David Gillen, an economics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

"They weren't prepared — not in terms of their business plan, in terms of capitalization, in terms of resources in terms of what you need to do to be a major full-service airline," he said.

Canada 3000 rivals Air Canada, WestJet Airlines, and Air Transat, a Montreal-based charter carrier, said they will attempt to accommodate stranded passengers. Air Canada and US Airways, a unit of US Airways Group Inc., offered discounted fares for Canada 3000 customers.

Air Canada, the country's largest airline, has been working with the Hawai'i Department of Transportation to fly stranded Canada 3000 passengers back to Vancouver and Toronto.

The airline now has three day flights and seven night flights a week from Honolulu to Vancouver, said Rod Sim, Air Canada's manager of customer services-Hawai'i.

Air Canada flights from Kahului, Maui, to Vancouver leave three times a week, with two more flights a week beginning about Dec. 1, he said. Air Canada also has five night flights a week from Honolulu to Toronto, Sim said.

Before Canada 3000 shut down, Air Canada had expected to add flights beginning Dec. 17 between Canada and Hawai'i, continuing to the South Pacific, Sim said.

To help Canada 3000 passengers, however, Air Canada will start some of its winter service earlier, adding three flights between Honolulu and Vancouver next week. Those flights will depart in the afternoon Nov. 12, Nov. 14 and Nov. 16, Sim said.

Stranded Canada 3000 customers returning to Canada from Hawai'i are eligible for 50 percent discounts on certain Air Canada excursion fares, Sim said. Air Canada also will waive the advance-booking requirement for those passengers, he said.

Advertiser staff writers Susan Hooper and Frank Cho contributed to this story.