I've read criticism of all Canadian carriers serving the sun destinations. Its really hard for airlines to react on short notice to take out people large numbers of people who had gone down for vacations over several days, as well as those who have time shares or are even living in the region as ex-pats and decide they have to get out, too. As YYC09 states above, it takes enormous effort to organize such an airlift on such short notice. Planes, crews, routes, extra airport handling - a lot has to be set up. A lot of people go off grid on vacation, and may not be reachable at the number they left the airline.