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SAN DIEGO –
Canadian airline Swoop opened a non-stop service between San Diego and Edmonton on Sunday, boosting the region’s tourism-dependent economy and proving that international travel is picking up again after the pandemic slump.
The Sunday morning flight from Edmonton to San Diego marked the first time non-stop service between the two cities was available. It is also the first time since 2018 that San Diego International Airport welcomes a new airline.
Swoop’s arrival follows British Airways resumed flights to San Diego in October and Japan Airlines resumed flights to San Diego in March.
Airport officials said Sunday the number of international flights to and from San Diego rose to 25 percent of pre-pandemic levels. But they said the number of international passengers has still dropped by about 90 percent because the flights are significantly less busy.
While the San Diego tourism industry relies on travelers from around the world, Canada is the region’s primary source for international visitors.
In 2019, San Diego was home to approximately 350,000 Canadian visitors, which, according to the San Diego Tourism Authority, had an economic impact of an estimated $ 183 million on the region.
Air Canada resumed non-stop service between San Diego and Vancouver, but not its non-stop service between Toronto and San Diego. Westjet offers non-stop connections between San Diego and Calgary.
“In San Diego, our priority is to develop new flight connections,” said Kimberly Becker, executive director of the local airport authority. “We anticipate this route will be popular with even more Canadians looking to enjoy our sunny coastlines and San Diegans looking for a great winter vacation in the beautiful Canadian Rockies.”
Swoop, a 3-year low-cost airline that has never flown to a California destination before, opens its service between San Diego and Edmonton with a Sunday flight in each direction only.
The airline plans to expand the service to Thursdays in December and add it to Tuesdays next year, spokeswoman Kelsey Trainor said.
“There’s a lot of optimism,” said Trainor shortly after the first swoop flight arrived from Edmonton. “San Diego is obviously a wonderful market for Edmontonians.”
Swoop announced plans to start a service between San Diego and Edmonton in 2019, but this was delayed by the grounding of some Boeing jets for safety assessments and later by the pandemic, Trainor said.
Among the passengers on Sunday’s maiden flight was Carlin Getz, a former San Diegan resident of Canada, who is visiting this week to celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday.
She said the non-stop flight made the trip shorter and more enjoyable, adding that she had to change flights in either Denver or Seattle or fly to Los Angeles and rent a car beforehand. On some of these trips she was with her three children.
“When I’m flying with children, it’s nice not to have a stopover,” she said right outside Gate 50 in Terminal 2. “And I’ll get here faster and spend more time with my family.”
The flight arrived shortly after 11:15 a.m. and the pink and white swoop jet rolled to the gate a few minutes later. Some baggage handlers have filmed videos on their phones to commemorate San Diego’s first non-stop flight from Edmonton.
The city is the capital of the province of Alberta. With 1.3 million inhabitants, it is the sixth largest metropolitan area in Canada.
Bert van der Stege, head of commercial and finance at Swoop, said late October is a common time for airlines to make flight schedule changes when switching from summer to winter service.
“We’re looking for places where the sun is shining and the temperatures are a little better than Edmonton,” he said. The average temperature in Edmonton in November is 24 degrees, according to Climate-data.org; It’s 61 degrees in San Diego.
Airport officials said one hurdle to recovery in international travel is confusion over vaccination regulations and COVID-19 testing rules, which vary by travel destination. The airport authority has a blog at san.org that aims to summarize these rules and requirements.
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