Swoop isn’t following their legal obligations to customers: Expert

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – After seven Swoop flights were cancelled this week, including one between Winnipeg and Abbotsford, the airline’s President is apologizing to all the passengers inconvenienced.

Although it may be too little to late as one expert says those who were stranded could sue the airline.

Passengers quickly took to Twitter to vent their frustrations with some saying they were told their flight had been rebooked days after they were originally scheduled to take off.


In a statement, Swoop President Steven Greenway says damage was found on the body on one of Swoop’s aircrafts and it needed to be grounded for repair. An investigation into the cause is still ongoing.

“On behalf of Swoop, I would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience our impacted travellers have experienced due to the unscheduled maintenance to one of our aircraft,” he says.

Greenway says all impacted travellers were rebooked on the next available flight. If the arrangements didn’t work, travellers were told to book alternative travel arrangements for themselves and invoice Swoop. Seven flights in total were cancelled.

But Gabor Lukacs from the Air Passenger Rights says telling people to buy their own tickets is where Swoop went wrong.

“That does not mean they are actually living up to their legal obligations. Swoop was supposed to do the lifting here and actually buy the tickets,” he says. “I would say that Swoop should pay additional compensation to passengers for so blatantly disregarding their rights.”

He adds when a customer buys a ticket, the airline agrees to abide by certain conditions. In this case, Swoop promised they would rebook customers, and failed to do so. What they offered, isn’t enough according to Lukacs.

He recommends passengers take the West Jet owned airline to small claims court for additional compensation.

“To seek reimbursements for their expenses plus $1000 per passenger in punitive damages for Swoop’s disregard of the passenger rights and failure to perform the contract,” he says.

Lukacs believes passengers have a strong case because Swoop broke the most important part of the contract when they didn’t find another way to transport everyone. He adds the federal government could issue fines to Swoop, but says this is a problem that nothing is being enforced.

Swoop says the aircraft returned to service Thursday afternoon.

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