Swoop Airlines is apologizing after they were forced to cancel 56 flights, leaving customers in the lurch.

Swoop officials say they sold tickets to U.S. destinations based on expected government approvals, a practice they say is common in the aviation industry. But some of those approvals didn’t arrive in time, forcing the Calgary-based airline to cancel almost five dozen flights.

A Swoop spokesperson told TravelPulse Canada that they were able to protect PAX on some flights from their parent company, WestJet, able to rebook customers on 32 of those 56 cancelled flights. The others 24 were out of luck. The spokesperson said they hope to have all regulatory approvals in place by Oct. 27, which will allow them to go back to their published schedules.

In an exclusive discussion with TravelPulse Canada today, Swoop president Steven Greenway said the airline has the necessary permits in hand for other flights that begin later in the year.

Swoop officials this morning issued an apology.

“First and foremost, we’d like to apologize to all of our affected travellers for the disappointment this disruption has caused,” spokesperson Karen McIsaac said in an email to TravelPulse Canada. “As we care deeply about doing what’s right, we have stood up a dedicated Travel Interruption Support team to directly call those affected by the cancelled flights, providing rebooking options or full refunds and compensation.”

“Our goal is to minimize the amount of overall disruption to our travellers and, after considering many factors including rebooking options and aircraft availability, we have leased an aircraft from WestJet to operate many of our flights at the original scheduled departure dates and time. 56 flights have been affected however 32 of those have been rebooked as WestJet leases leaving them unaffected in scheduling.

“It is common practice, not just in Canada but in all of the jurisdictions we serve, to receive the approval to sell prior to the operating approval,” McIsaac said. “Swoop submitted the required documentation according to industry standard lead times and are working to expedite the receipt of the outstanding approval. We received our Canadian Air Operating certificate in mid-June at which time we started the approval process for the U.S.. “We remain optimistic that we will receive the outstanding approval in short order with indicators showing it will arrive prior to October 27, at which time Swoop will resume its scheduled flights.”

Asked if they’re worried about the company taking a public relations hit, McIsaac said that’s not their focus.

“Our main concern and focus right now is to ensure our impacted travellers are looked after and able to get to where they need to go with minimal impact,” she said.

One aviation insider has said selling tickets to a destination in advance without the certain approvals in place can sometimes get the backs up of those issuing the permits.

“ Likely Swoop assumed it would be a simple task because of existing permits in place with parent company WestJet, however, completely independent operating certificates are treated as arm's length regardless of association.”

We’ll keep our finger on the pulse of this one.