Canada鈥檚 newest ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) could soon swoop into Abbotsford.
On Wednesday, WestJet revealed the name and hot-pink logo for its subsidiary, Swoop. It will begin selling tickets for summer flights in February, according to Bob Cummings, WestJet鈥檚 executive vice-president responsible for the company鈥檚 launch.
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Swoop will leverage WestJet鈥檚 infrastructure and fly 10 Boeing 787-800 planes with 189 seats each, Cummings said. A ticket will only buy a seat with an extra fee likely charged for luggage, priority seating, extra leg-room and even in-flight entertainment.
鈥淵ou pay for exactly what you want and will get value from,鈥� he said.
Cummings would not confirm whether or not Swoop would be flying in and out of Abbotsford International Airport (YXX) but said it鈥檚 鈥渁 tremendous airport that fits very well with the ULCC model.鈥�
鈥淔or competitive reasons, we won鈥檛 be absolutely disclosing the cities and the network until our booking launch day in February,鈥� he said.
But the airport鈥檚 general manager seemed confident.
鈥淚t looks like [Swoop] will be in Abbotsford,鈥� said Parm Sidhu, the Abbotsford Airport鈥檚 general manager.
Sidhu said YXX is perfectly suited to serve a ULCC like Swoop and anticipates it will get 鈥渘ew people flying鈥� who aren鈥檛 able to afford conventional airlines. He said he expects operations to take off in June 2018.
WestJet has studied the ULCC model around the world, particularly in the U.S., Cummings said. There, he said, bargain airlines like Spirit and Allegiant typically charge 50 per cent less than Canadian airlines for flights of the same distance.
鈥淵ou won鈥檛 see quite those levels of discounts [from Swoop], but we鈥檙e building a cost structure to get towards those kinds of discounts and average-fare levels that are quite substantially lower and, I鈥檒l say, game-changing or disruptive in the Canadian market,鈥� Cummings said.
Swoop hopes to 鈥渞epatriate鈥� some cross-border 鈥渓eakage鈥� to those American competitors by offering a price they can鈥檛 refuse closer to home, Cummings said.
Cummings reiterated that Swoop鈥檚 flight network won鈥檛 be disclosed until the new year, even declining to comment on whether it would run flights to and from its home base in Calgary, but said they hope to fly to southern B.C., southern Ontario and other 鈥渓arger cities or regions in Canada.鈥�
kelvin.gawley@abbynews.com
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