Low-cost carrier Swoop airlines will soon have only a single destination to and from Hamilton International Airport as the airline cancelled routes due to struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an e-mail to Global News, the carrier revealed that its eight flights weekly to and from Abbotsford, B.C., and six to and from Halifax will be no longer as of Oct. 23.
The carrier’s only remaining destination from John C. Munro will be service to Edmonton, which will operate up to four times weekly with service on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
The news comes a day after the carrier revealed its new operations out of Pearson International Airport in Toronto, which go into effect on Oct. 25, two days after the Hamilton flights discontinue.
A number of the airline’s flights to sun destinations, like Cancun, Las Vegas and Orlando, will also now operate out of Toronto.
“Our winter schedule is in response to a growing rebound in travel, as we know travellers are eager to plan their next getaway,” president Charles Duncan said in a release on Wednesday.
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Spokesperson Larissa Mark told Global News the changes were based on the airline’s pandemic recovery plan and are indicative of current demand from the airline.
“We will continue to serve the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport as we feel this is a market that has served Swoop well and still holds opportunities for us,” Mark said.
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“We are thankful for the continued support of the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport now and during our first two years of operation.”
Dina Carlucci, director of business development and customer experience for the Hamilton airport, told Global News that the move away from John C. Munro was not “good news,” making for “a tough week” for the airport.
“It’s unfortunate news,” Carlucci said.
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“Very much positioned around the pandemic and looking at recovery strategies that are going to align with travel demand for them.”
Swoop first signed up with the airport in 2018 as a subsidiary of WestJet and flew to nine destinations across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Jamaica.
With the changes, the airport is down to only two passenger carriers, Swoop and WestJet, with the latter still operating five flights to Calgary every week.
Prior to the pandemic, Carlucci says the passenger side of the airport’s business was doing well, hitting the one-million mark at the end of 2019.
“We were well on our way to likely meeting or exceeding the one-million mark for 2020,” Carlucci said. “COVID hit and all of a sudden from the second quarter onward our numbers slid.”
Despite passenger capacity being down 92 per cent in the spring, amid the pandemic, Carlucci says the airport is still benefitting from its diversity in other businesses, including cargo, maintenance and repair operations.