WestJet Announces Three New WestJet Cities in the East

[invertedattitude]

Sorry I thought the YYG service was another flight to YZ. I can't believe WJA is flying YYG to YUL but is not from YQM. They used to and did quite well I believe, you can get to YUL from QM, but you have to fly right over it to go to YYZ first which I imagine most business travellers don't want to waste time on.


I don't think you're getting my other point. If WJA has two YYZ flights a day from YQM, people have more service options, therefore more people turn from competitors to fly on WJA. Let me ask you this, and no offence meant to Jazz people here at all, but if you had the choice between a $500 ticket on an RJ, or a $525 ticket on a 737 which would you choose to travel on? Myself being 6'4, I'm more comfortable on a 737, I've flown on many RJ's and are not by any means terrible in comfort, by they do feel much more cramped than a 737.

That point being made it's just hard I guess for QM'ers to see the hard work everyone at the airport does, not just WJA/Jazz people and see the service level drop and drop and drop, less options means less people thinking of flying from QM, and it causes changes in travellers trends over-time for the worse for that base.

YQM is in the most central location in the Maritimes, with a population of over 100,000, a large portion of the travellers are not from the Greater Moncton Area.

Now before I go any further, I want to add that WJA service to YSJ/YYG and charters to YFC is very beneficial to me, well not me personally but indirectly. So I'm glad that it's happening, and YQM is not my hometown, YYG is actually where I'm from and where my life in aviation started, and I'm also glad to finally see some decent flights operating out of YYG.

[CanadaEH]

Sorry I thought the YYG service was another flight to YZ. I can't believe WJA is flying YYG to YUL but is not from YQM. They used to and did quite well I believe, you can get to YUL from QM, but you have to fly right over it to go to YYZ first which I imagine most business travellers don't want to waste time on.

YUL-YYG is surprising to me as well. I do know that there was a lot of local O&D traffic between YYZ and YYG, so perhaps that's the reason we launched YUL-YYG as well. I'd speculate it's a good alternative to YYZ but the connection times from YYC/YVR through YUL suck. They suck so bad I'd consider them non-existant.

We did fly YUL-YQM and YUL-YHZ about two years ago but both never did very well. I thought that with all the advertising we've been doing in Eastern Canada that we'd have no problem making a successful go of both routes now. But, that's purely speculation on my part with nothing factual or statistical to back it up.

I don't think you're getting my other point. If WJA has two YYZ flights a day from YQM, people have more service options, therefore more people turn from competitors to fly on WJA. Let me ask you this, and no offence meant to Jazz people here at all, but if you had the choice between a $500 ticket on an RJ, or a $525 ticket on a 737 which would you choose to travel on? Myself being 6'4, I'm more comfortable on a 737, I've flown on many RJ's and are not by any means terrible in comfort, by they do feel much more cramped than a 737.

I understand how capacity works. Years ago, we had 2 daily YVR-YYZ flights. We added a third and it ended up flying with about 30-50 people on it on a daily basis. After about 5 weeks they cancelled the flight and re-routed it to YOW instead. The funny thing was, the remaining two YVR-YYZ flights were always near or at capacity but we just couldn't get anyone to fill that third one up. In your (Maritimes) case, there just isn't the year-round demand that other cities have. During the summer, tourism booms in the Maritimes but dies off drastically during the winter. Tourism is practically non-existant during the winter. That's why there's so much seasonal service to Eastern Canada this summer.

That point being made it's just hard I guess for QM'ers to see the hard work everyone at the airport does, not just WJA/Jazz people and see the service level drop and drop and drop, less options means less people thinking of flying from QM, and it causes changes in travellers trends over-time for the worse for that base.

Sure, they drive to YHZ or YYG or, seasonally, YSJ. I have no idea where people come from when they fly out of YHZ or YYG or YQM because I honestly have no idea. What I have been told is that people out there are willing to drive a fair distance to get to an airport that we serve.

So instead of adding another YQM-YYZ flight this summer, we seasonally add YSJ-YYZ knowing that "XX" amount of people on our YQM-YYZ flight are from that area. We provide new service and (hopefully) gain more customers that wouldn't otherwise drive to YQM to fly us. Is it a good idea? I don't know.. guess we'll find out, but take a look at YYG: It was launched as seasonal summer-only service (daily) but did so well that we extended it through the winter with 3 (or 4?) flights per week. Those 3 or 4 flights per week did so well it went daily, and here we are adding an additional city for a total of 13 flights per week to YYG (from YUL and YYZ).

YQM is in the most central location in the Maritimes, with a population of over 100,000, a large portion of the travellers are not from the Greater Moncton Area.

That further solidifies my point of adding service to other surrounding airports (YSJ). If a large portion of those travelling out of YQM are driving from the surrounding cities, the added convenience of service out of YSJ should be extremely successful and welcome by those who no longer have to drive hours to get to YQM. We're doing the same thing by adding YKF to our network - it provides another convenient alternative to our current (and potential) customers.

Now before I go any further, I want to add that WJA service to YSJ/YYG and charters to YFC is very beneficial to me, well not me personally but indirectly. So I'm glad that it's happening, and YQM is not my hometown, YYG is actually where I'm from and where my life in aviation started, and I'm also glad to finally see some decent flights operating out of YYG.

Westjet's expansion strategy has always, from day one, been slow-and-steady. It took 10 years to take YVR-YYC from 2 daily flights to 12. In three years, we've gone from having one Maritime destination (YQM) with one flight per day to six destinations (YQM, YHZ, YYT, YYG, YSJ, YDF) with and just under 20 flights per day. Our growth with continue, and you can bet there'll be plenty more to come in the Maritimes as well... maybe even to YQM.

[Stick-Shaker]

I mean what would farmers or locals know anyway..

...That you can't be profitable in YSJ

[invertedattitude]

Thanks for the post Canada.

Speaking of advertising, WJA does a fair bit, but around the QM area it's not fantastic, an odd radio add, but there's one billboard in the entire city, its by the "Old" airport (Old terminal other side of the airport) It features a 737-200, on a withered old sign, spouting service to YHM and YOW... nothing about Toronto etc etc.

A couple of fresh billboards I think would go a long way. You'd be surprised how many people don't know about "westjet" out here... they think everyone is Air Canada.

[CanadaEH]

Looks like someone forgot they had a billboard.

[invertedattitude]

Looks like someone forgot they had a billboard.

I think your right, when CanJet started their new advertising here in QM there were signs everywhere in town, but on that same old WJA sign, on the other side, is a withered old CanJet sign So I'm thinking no-one is paying for it.

[EI-EIO]

from what I hear about people trying to get from YZ to YT and back this Christmas on AC, I'm not surprised WJ are getting enough business to put on a second rotation.

[invertedattitude]

from what I hear about people trying to get from YZ to YT and back this Christmas on AC, I'm not surprised WJ are getting enough business to put on a second rotation.

Um... I think the convo was regarding WJA flights To St.John, not St.John's

As in YSJ not YYT.

[Rotten Apple #1]

And um, I thought the convo was about Saint John, and not St. John's.

[CanadaEH]

Someone needs to petition to have one of those places change names.

[Rotten Apple #1]

I don't know about the places changing names, but I recall there being strong support in the late nineties for St.John's to change places, however I believe most of those polled preferred a tropical climate, and there simply weren't any available at the time...within a reasonable distance.


As the Newfs say,"I do hope your jib is drawing for a lengthy time..."

Or something like that.

[Cod Father]

Pity someone couldn't get some kind of code sharing or passenger feeding agreement with WJA and fly smaller planes from YSJ, YFC, and ZBF (Bathurst) to interline with WJA at YQM and at YHZ from YQI, YQY and YYG

[invertedattitude]

Pity someone couldn't get some kind of code sharing or passenger feeding agreement with WJA and fly smaller planes from YSJ, YFC, and ZBF (Bathurst) to interline with WJA at YQM and at YHZ from YQI, YQY and YYG

PE Air tried this from YYG-YHZ with CanJet... it didn't work.

Unless you're going to offer a decent airplane with good connection times, it just won't work.

[Four1oh]

no one is stopping any of the small companies of timing their skeds a little better.