The end of Swoop

Westjet announced in June 2023 that it had signed its second collective bargaining agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). In this contract, WestJet made the decision to fully integrate the ultra low-cost airline, Swoop, into its core operations.

As decided, this means that Swoop has operated up to and including October 28, 2023. Since October 29, 2023, Swoop employees have been transferred to WestJet. This is the end of the Swoop airline.

WestJet uses all Swoop’s existing routes and now operates flights and routes under the WestJet name. Swoop’s purple planes will be repainted with WestJet’s turquoise color.

In just over 5 years, Swoop has carried almost 7 million passengers on more than 40,000 flights to 38 destinations.

Having started operations in June 2018, Swoop had a fleet of 16 aircraft. Canadians took advantage of its low rates for more than five years. With WestJet’s recent acquisition of Sunwing Airlines, and the fact that they previously had no flights to or from Quebec, it will be interesting to see if the Swoop model influences WestJet’s strategy for the budget travel segment in Canada.

Swoop began flying in June 2018 and has 16 aircraft in its fleet. Canadians will have been able to take advantage of these low prices for just over five years.

For the moment, WestJet has not confirmed that Swoop’s low fares will remain in place for destinations formerly served by Swoop.

It will be interesting to see what WestJet plans to do, especially since they recently bought the Sunwing airline. They didn’t have any flights to or from the province of Quebec, but Swoop could be a tempting alternative for passengers looking for low-cost travel in Canada.