When Zoom grounded all of its flights on Aug. 28, some 4,500 customers were left stranded, mostly in Europe and the Caribbean. Another 40,000 were stuck with tickets that were essentially useless.
Most managed to book flights home, but the increased demand for charter flights in the Caribbean has left that region particularly under-serviced.
Toronto-based G.G. Tours, which had used Zoom to charter flights to the Caribbean, has co-ordinated efforts with Skyservice Airlines and CanJet Airlines to provide emergency flights for its more than 1,200 customers stuck in the tropics.
And while planeloads of tourists from Guyana and Trinidad have already landed in Toronto, more than 100 stranded Canadians in Jamaica and Grenada must wait out the weekend before they can return.
Flight arrangements have been complicated by severe weather in the region. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and tropical storm Hanna have blown their way through the tiny islands one after another in the past week.
"We've been swamped for a week," said, John Gideon, G.G. Tours' wholesale manager, who had barely enough time to talk as he finalized details for flights out of Jamaica. "We've been swamped for a week," he said. "But agents say that their customers . . . have been very appreciative."
On Thursday afternoon the website confirmed that the agency had secured flights for its remaining customers, with arrivals due on Sept. 8 and 9.
Any new charter flight needs to get a permit from the Canadian Transportation Authority before it can take off, said spokesman Jadrino Huot, so the CTA has remained open 24 hours a day since Zoom's collapse in order to facilitate quick departures.
"We've created an emergency tag-team so that these requests would be treated as priority," said Huot.
Zoom founders and owners Hugh and John Boyle have said soaring oil costs meant their low-fare operation was no longer viable. The Scottish brothers issued a statement on their website offering their apologies to Zoom passengers.
Some of the stranded tourists have tried using other agencies to get them home. Sayed Rayman, an agent from Roraima Travel in Toronto, said he's been busy the last week answering calls from travellers stuck around the world. "The customers are not very courteous, but you can understand," he said. "If it happened to me and I was stranded I may be a little less than courteous."
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