Swoop suspends Kelowna flights for the summer

Calgary’s budget airline Swoop will not be flying in and out of Kelowna International Airport this summer.

Swoop announced an updated summer schedule June 9, which does not include flights to and from Kelowna, Victoria, Charlottetown, Moncton and St. John's and continues the current suspension of services to London and Winnipeg until October 24 as a result of COVID-19, according to a news release.

Swoop is also extending the temporary transborder and international route suspensions through to Sept. 13, according to the release.

The budget airline's regular schedule had flights from Kelowna to Winnipeg and vice versa three times a week.

“While reflective of the impacts of COVID-19, the airline's summer schedule also shows signs of recovery with increased route frequencies representing a 70 per cent increase in total available seats, compared to May,” according to the news release.

Established in 2018, Swoop is a low-cost airline, independently operated as part of the WestJet Group of companies.

In April and May, passenger numbers at Kelowna’s airport dropped by 96 per cent.

READ MORE: Flying in and out of Kelowna is going to look a lot different

Currently, the airport remains open and is operating for domestic travel. In June and July, Central Mountain Air, Flair Airlines and Pacific Coastal Airlines will resume operations at YLW to Victoria, Prince George, Calgary and Edmonton.

Air Canada is currently operating flights to Vancouver twice per day, Central Mountain Air will resume operations on July 6 with flights to Prince George three times per week, Flair Airlines has recently announced it will resume operations on July 16 with flights to Calgary and Edmonton.


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Carli Berry

Carli Berry has been telling stories in the Okanagan for the past three years and after finding her footing in the newspaper industry, joined the Infonews team in January 2020. Recipient of the 2019 MA Murray award for feature writing, Carli is passionate about stories that involve housing, business and the environment. Born on Vancouver Island, she is happy to say Okanagan Lake reminds, her slightly, of the ocean. Carli can be reached at (250) 864-7494 or email cberry@infonews.ca.