TRAVEL NEWS | Swoop airline left travelers stranded

With the large airline carriers such as Air Canada, Delta, Sunwing, United Airlines that have over the years dominated the travel industry, there slowly began a need for the ultra low cost carrier due to pricing. This raised interest to have ultra-low-cost airlines like Swoop. The airline responded to the needs of the travel market, for travelers who did not want to pay high rates for their flights, that included extras built into the economy and more flight options. These extras are, free changes and/or cancellations, options to upgrade seats, meals and checked luggage, to name a few.

On July 5th, one of Swoop’s aircraft had an engine issue where there was an oil leak. As such, 23 flights were impacted which resulted in leaving some travelers stranded. Part of the blame fell on the grounding of the 737 Boeing, as the airline was unable to charter out flights to other carriers.

"We are exploring options to charter aircraft to assist with the relief, however there are few options to do so as availability is limited in light of the MAX grounding," spokeswoman Karen McIsaac said in an email.

Swoop has since accommodated passengers by paying for their meals, transportation, and hotel costs, and are also offering refunds to travelers should they choose to go that route. With little information given to travelers who arrived at the airport for their scheduled flights, an RCMP officer had to be called down to the counter and proceeded to explain to the travelers what transpired with the plane, in Alberta. There were some travelers who learned about the issue when they arrived at the airport, while others checked prior to, but still were apprehensive due to the limited information given.

It should be noted that, “The rules impose no obligation on airlines to pay customers for delays or cancellations if they were caused by mechanical problems discovered in a pre-flight check -- walking around the aircraft before takeoff looking for defects -- rather than during scheduled maintenance required after 100 hours cumulatively in the air.”

To date, Swoop has not provided an estimate on when service would return to normal.

Let us know in the comments, have you experienced flight delays before? What was your experience like?

Happy Traveling,
The Luxe and Lavish Travels Team