WestJet’s ultra low-cost carrier Swoop ready for takeoff
TORONTO • Canadian travellers looking to purchase cheap flight tickets are about to get another option with the launch of WestJet Airlines Ltd.’s ultra low-cost carrier Swoop on Wednesday.
The inaugural flight, which will carry passengers from Hamilton to Abbotsford, B.C., will depart early Wednesday morning.
Although that flight still had a few seats open as of Tuesday afternoon, Swoop’s president Steven Greenway says demand for the summer season has been strong, a sign that there is a market for an ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC) in Canada. He said the airline sold its 100,000th seat on Monday.
“We’ve had very high load factors so far,” Greenway said in an interview. “We’re looking good.”
The launch of Swoop comes after several months of turbulence at the company, including a near-strike by the pilot union largely over hiring at the new ULCC.
WestJet and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) managed to avert a strike in late May after agreeing to a settlement process that would include mediation and binding arbitration, if necessary. The arbitrator overseeing negotiations ruled in early June that WestJet pilots can now fly Swoop, which will also be represented by ALPA.
Greenway said the company achieved what it had wanted through the ruling.
“First of all, WestJet pilots are allowed to come and fly for Swoop, which is fantastic,” he said. “The second part is that they can come over and fly for Swoop at Swoop rates and conditions, so that preserves our economic ULCC model which is key for us going forward.”
The key tenet of the ultra low-cost model is keeping operating costs as low as possible. Greenway says the company is still targeting a cost per available seat mile (CASM), a measure of how much an airline spends to fly passengers, of 6 cents excluding fuel costs. He hopes to reach that benchmark by August of next year.
But Swoop isn’t the only ULCC hoping to make it in the notoriously tough Canadian aviation market.
Flair Airlines, which recently expanded its route network from 90 to 188 flights per week, is already operating in Canada and is increasingly adjusting its operations to be more ULCCfocused. On Wednesday, the airline — previously a charter — announced it will be relocating its operations and executive base from Kelowna, B.C. to Edmonton.
“Kelowna was a fine base for a charter operator but it didn’t really give us the scope, the potential we need as we’re growing,” Flair executive David Tait said.
Meanwhile, Greenway said he welcomes the competition.
“There will be carriers that come and there will be carriers that go. It’s just par for the course,” he said.
“You can’t just focus on what your competitors are doing. You have to chart out a path for success, and our path is a maniacal focus on cost... We’ll obviously take what’s going on with the competition, but it’s not going to rule what we do day-in and day-out.”
But Canadian passengers who are hoping to get the same experience on Swoop as they do on WestJet should brace themselves. ULCC’s may offer a low-base fare, but they charge a range of fees for things such as seat selection (from $5 to $30) and carry-on luggage (starting at $36.75).
Like Flair, Swoop is also eyeing expansion toward southern destinations in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Greenway said the airline hopes to be selling tickets to new destinations by the end of the year.