Swoop airlines waiting on U.S. approval

Low-cost airline Swoop has been all the hype here in Hamilton, with cheap flights being offered to the U.S. Their first inaugural flight was this summer from Hamilton to Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Their first flight to the U.S. was supposed to be today to Orlando but those planes are grounded.

Gord Love spoke to us via Facetime from Buffalo International airport, where he was forced to book a last minute flight to Orlando at double the cost after Swoop airlines sent him an email Friday informing him they did not have approval to operate to the U.S.

Swoop has issued a statement to CHCH that reads in part: Swoop had hoped to have the regulatory approval to operate to the U.S. but we don’t yet have it.

Swoop says until October 27th, there will be no flights to the U.S. from other Canadian hubs including Edmonton, Halifax and Abbotsford, until this approval is received. They did not provide any further details on the issue.

Love says the airline gave him the option of flying out of Toronto with their parent company WestJet instead but there were no available seats for the day he needed. He’s concerned he won’t get reimbursed.

Air passenger rights advocate, Gabor Lukacs says he finds this odd and can’t figure out why they are saying they don’t have the approval. He also sent us a document from the U.S dept of transportation dated October 10th of this year, showing that Swoop does in fact have clearance to fly to the US.

“My advice to passengers is not to book any flights that go to the U.S. Swoop still needs to get their ducks in a row and until that happens don’t book with them.”

Swoop flights within Canada remain unaffected and are still fully operational. On Swoop’s website, you can still book flights from Canada to the U.S. beginning October 27th.