CALGARY — It took less than a year for Swoop to fly its one-millionth traveller, a milestone that the carrier commemorated with free roundtrip tickets for a couple of lucky passengers.

William and Emily Burchat, who were flying from Edmonton to Hamilton to introduce their five-month old twin daughters to their grandparents for the first time, were surprised by none other than Swoop president Steven Greenway upon landing. In addition to two roundtrip tickets, Greenway also presented them with a commemorative, Swoop-branded model aircraft.

The airline made sure to include all passengers in the day’s festivities, which included celebratory décor and refreshments at the gate in Edmonton. Travellers were encouraged to record their favourite travel stories at the Swoop Stories Video Booth to be shared on Swoop’s social channels. In addition, every traveller received an exclusive Swoop luggage tag, promo code and the hugely popular Swoop piggy bank.

“We suspected the millionth traveller would be flying this week so we decided to have some fun and share the experience with an entire flight,” said Greenway. “After all, every traveller is equally as valued and we were eager to show our appreciation in a unique way.”

The Burchats described the entire experience as “awesome.”

“They were all super helpful, every single one of them,” said William of his first Swoop flight.” Their prices are cheap but the quality isn’t. We save as much money as we can to give them (the twins) a better future. Every penny counts with them.”

Emily added: “Both of us and the girls flew here for half the price it would have cost. We wouldn’t have been able to actually make the trip. It’s hard to travel as a family.”

Swoop is a month shy of reaching one full year of operation, having begun flights on June 20, 2018 with an initial fleet of three aircraft and a network of five Canadian cities. Since then, the airline has expanded service to include 16 destinations across four countries. Its Edmonton base has seen an exponential increase in weekly flights and now employs 104 ‘Swoopsters’. Hamilton, meanwhile, has almost quadrupled its weekly flights since launch and currently employs 166 Swoopsters.