WestJet
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| Founded | 1996 | ||||||
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| Hubs | Calgary International Airport Toronto Pearson Int'l Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Montréal-Trudeau Int'l Airport Vancouver International Airport Edmonton International Airport | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Air Miles (not run by WestJet) | ||||||
| Fleet size | 57 (+ 22 ordered) | ||||||
| Destinations | 23 Canadian 10 United States | ||||||
| Parent company | WestJet Airlines Ltd. | ||||||
| Headquarters | Calgary, Alberta | ||||||
| Key people | Clive J. Beddoe (President & CEO) Sandy Campbell (Executive Vice-President and CFO) Don Bell (Executive Vice-President) Fred Ring (Executive Vice-President) Sean Durfy (Executive Vice-President) Russ Hall (Executive Vice-President) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.westjet.com | ||||||
WestJet TSX: WJA is a Canadian low-cost carrier based in Calgary, Alberta that flies to most major cities in Canada and now 11 cities in the United States. WestJet is a rarity in the airline industry due to the fact that it is non-unionized. Profit-sharing is credited for this fact.
History
Founded on February 29, 1996 by Clive Beddoe, Mark Hill, Tim Morgan, and Donald Bell, WestJet tried to follow the same path as Southwest Airlines and Morris Air, as a low-cost carrier. Originally meant to be a western Canada operation, WestJet soon became one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.
On February 29, 1996, the first WestJet flight (a Boeing 737) departed. At that time, the airline served Calgary (the airline's hub), Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver, and Winnipeg with a fleet of three Boeing 737-200 aircraft and two-hunded and twenty employees. By the end of that same year, they had included Regina, Saskatoon, and Victoria. In 1997, service to Abbotsford was added. In addition, 1997 marked the one millionth passenger carried.
In 1999, a milestone was reached when WestJet was able to offer its first public sharing at 2.5 million shares. Also in 1999, the cities of Thunder Bay, Grande Prairie, and Prince George were added to WestJet's route map. In 2000, the airline expanded to Canada's eastern region, reaching Hamilton, Moncton, and Ottawa, and choosing Hamilton as the airline's eastern region hub. That year, Beddoe, Hill, Morgan and Bell were given the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year award in Canada for their contribution to the Canadian airline industry. In 2001, expansion continued to include Fort McMurray and Comox, and to the subsequently pulled cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thompson and Brandon. The airline's four creators also received another entrepreneurship award. In 2002, the airline added two new eastern Canadian destinations: the cities of London and Toronto. In April 2003, WestJet added Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, St. John's, and Gander.
In late 2002 the Airline was accused by rival Air Canada of [1] espionage for their role in accessing confidential information. On May 29, 2006, WestJet issued a press release admitting its involvement in the Air Canada espionage scandal, and agreeing to pay over 5 million dollars in legal and investigation fees to Air Canada, and to donate over 10 million dollars to various children's charities in the name of Air Canada and WestJet.
In April, 2004, WestJet moved its eastern hub from Hamilton to Toronto. All of the flights between Ottawa and Hamilton and Montreal and Hamilton were moved to Toronto, a move that brought WestJet more fully into the lucrative Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle.
In 2004, a number of U.S. destinations were added or announced. These included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, New York (LaGuardia).
WestJet's transborder flights fly non-stop from Calgary (WestJet's main hub), as well as Edmonton, Kelowna, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.
Palm Springs was added in early 2005 to the company's list of destinations, as was San Diego, while New York-LaGuardia was dropped. In April 2005, they announced new service seasonal to Charlottetown. Also in April 2005, WestJet ceased service to Gander. In June 2005, the airline announced it was ceasing service to Windsor, Ontario, effective October 30, 2005, and shifting capacity to nearby London. In fall 2005, Ft. Myers and Las Vegas were added to the growing list of destinations.
After rumours and speculation surrounding the implementation of extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS), WestJet announced new service to the Hawaiian Islands from Vancouver on September 20, 2005. December 2005, the airline began flying from Vancouver to Honolulu and Vancouver to Maui. All flights returning from the Hawaiian Islands are overnight flights (red-eyes) allowing the carrier to maintain a high utilization of the fleet.
In 2006, WestJet announced they were dropping their service to San Francisco, California. Likewise, seasonal service to San Diego, California was not renewed in 2006.
Destinations
See: List of WestJet destinations
Current status
During a second quarter conference call in 2004, Clive Beddoe, announced that WestJet would serve the United States. On September 20, 2004 WestJet commenced the first phase of its trans-border flights by flying from Calgary and Toronto to Los Angeles International Airport as well as Toronto to New York LaGuardia. However, WestJet ended service to New York (LaGuardia) on July 4, 2005, citing an inability to secure gates at the airport.
Soon after, the airline announced new service from Calgary to Fort Lauderdale; Edmonton to Las Vegas; Kelowna to Las Vegas; Toronto to Fort Myers and Phoenix; Montreal to Fort Lauderdale; Winnipeg to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix; and Vancouver to Las Vegas, Palm Springs, and Phoenix.
WestJet Airlines entered into a two-year agreement with Air Transat in August, 2003, whereby WestJet Next Generation Boeing aircraft would be filled by Transat's two main tour operators, World of Vacations and Air Transat Holidays. The planes are operated by WestJet crews. Some of the destinations where WestJet planes can be found are the Dominican Republic, Puerto Vallarta, Panama City (Panama), Cancún, Mazatlán, Varadero, Cuba and St. Martin. There are also weekly charter flights run year-round to Las Vegas, Nevada, from Calgary and Edmonton on behalf of Signature Vacations; this charter agreement was set to expire in the fall of 2005.
In 2005, WestJet implemented seat-back television on board its 737-700 fleet. Channels include CTV, CBS, CityTV, Treehouse TV, ABC, NBC, CBC and a WestJet Channel, which shows a regional map with the aircraft's location, altitude, and airspeed.
Legal Problems
In late May of 2006, WestJet settled with chief rival Air Canada over claims the company had engaged in unethical espionage practices in order to gain a business advantage.[2]
Current fleet
Fleet as of May 2006
The airline flies a fleet that consists exclusively of Boeing 737s, taking a cue from the successful single operating type model pioneered by Southwest Airlines. By year end 2005, the operating fleet will consist of 56 aircraft; The first deliveries of 737-600 and 737-800 aircraft began in 2005.
It was announced early in 2005 that the 737-200 fleet would be retired within the year, to be replaced by newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft. On July 12th, 2005, WestJet announced that it had completed the sale of its remaining Boeing 737-200 to Miami-based Apollo Aviation Group (Apollo).
On January 9th, 2006, the last Boeing 737-200 (Tail 748 C-FCWJ) was flown during a fly-by ceremony at the WestJet hangar in Calgary. (See External Links). The aircraft was flown by Don Bell. The last commercial revenue flight by a '200 was a charter flight, Las Vegas to Calgary, arriving at 0130 January 9, 2006, flown by tail 741 (C-GWWJ). WestJet now operates the youngest fleet of aircraft by a major commercial airline in North America, with an average age of two years (as of 31 December 2005 [3]).
Livery
The Westjet planes are mostly white, except for the lettering on the cabins, the tail, and the metallic wings and tailfins.
The tail is divided into rough and slanted thirds, coloured (from front to back) teal, white, and grayish blue. This pattern is used on the outside of the wing stablizers at the end of the wings, while on the inside, the stablizers are painted white with the words WestJet.com in black lettering.