'Chess game' as thousands of Canada Games athletes to leave and arrive on same day

Charlottetown Airport will be a busy place this Sunday as athletes from Week 1 of Canada Winter Games leave, and teams for Week 2 arrive on P.E.I. 

About 1,000 volunteers will be involved in what's known as "turnaround day." 

Wayne Carew, chair of the 2023 Canada Winter Games host society, said 1,600 athletes will be leaving and 1,600 will be arriving. 

Carew said logistically it will be the biggest day of the Games.

Things will also be busy at the athletes' village. Carew said they've even rehearsed the turnaround there. 

"We have to get the athletes out of the rooms by nine o'clock and entertain them until we can get them on the aircraft ... so it's quite a chess game making sure everyone's at the right place at the right time," he said. 

Carew said a company has been hired to flip the rooms within three to four hours. 

"The athletes are going to have to leave their laundry piled in the room. They're being asked to strip the bed. And then have all new laundry ready to go that will be put on the bunks," he said. 

Athletes who have been competing at Crabbe Mountain in New Brunswick and at the Halifax Oval will come back to P.E.I. and leave for home with their provincial teams.

Carew said staff and volunteers have been fantastic and are enthusiastic about the turnaround. 

He said there are 11 charter flights arriving on P.E.I., and then turning around and leaving. And another two charters will be carrying equipment.