WestJet Regional - WestJet Encore

[True North]

Huge Hammer,

My source is my good friend who is in WestJet flight ops management and my sister in law who works in the call centre. Both told me horror stories and that WestJet lost customers for months. My own personal experiences, and those of friends of mine who were loyal WJ customers and flew with Air Canada for many months after the fact, give me no reason to doubt what I have been told.

[Huge Hammer]

@True North

Sorry, I think your sources are very misinformed.

Without the Sabre cutover WS simply can't have all of the code share and interline business that we do now and will continue to get.

Two employees speculating on "millions lost" and calling it an umitigated disaster just does not reflect the reality.

[True North]

HH,

Nobody is suggesting Sabre (or an equivalent system) wasn't necessary for WJ to move forward. I'm simply speaking to the cutover process and you can't deny there were issues. My sources aren't just "two employees speculating", they were directly involved in the process and the ensuing fallout. I have no doubt what so ever they know what they are talking about and that is why I also believe it was a factor in Sean Durfy's departure.

But hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion and you don't have to believe me. You have access to your flight ops management, you can ask yourself.

Cheers

[CanadaEH]

HH, while it may be hard to quantify "lost business" I think millions in lost revenue isn't unreasonable. Sabre pissed off a lot of people. I'd like to think they've returned but for a period of time I do think some avoided travelling on WestJet.

[Darkwing Duck]

Darkwing,

My post was a response to Gear Up's concern about the state of the union - that's all. The comment about 2013 being a contract year is a reminder that we must keep focus on the major issues.

Leerboy - you funny.

JJJ

Fair enough, like I said I in another response, I could be wrong. And this time, I admit I am wrong. No hard feelings...

[Huge Hammer]

@ True North and CEh - I never for a second claimed that the Sabre cutover did not have issues. I am taking exception to the comments that it was an unmitigated disaster that "lost untold millions".

A couple points. Any revenue loss as a result of cutover has been made more than made up for in increased interline/code share revenue. Ask your same sources what the amount of revenue that this brought in for Septemeber. It is not public but the number is not hard to find. Without Sabre, it never happens.

As for the actual Sabre cutover that happened in October 2009.

October Load factor - improved over 2008

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=387

November load factor - down slightly over 2008, 76.1% vs 75.9%. 0.2% decline during a recession.

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=396

December load factor - record load factor of 81.7%, up from 80.8%.

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=407

January load factor - record load factor of 78.8%, up 2 %.

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=415

February load factor - 82.5%, down 0.1%

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=423

March load factor - 83.8%, up from 81.9%

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=434

April load factor - 84%, up from 81.2%

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=442

I am really not trying to be arguementative here but WS basically grew the business in terms of load factor, there was year over year ASM growth each of these months, pluse WS put in a new reservation system.

The cutover was tough and a pain in the ass, no doubt. It was also neccessary and set WS for future growth that would have been impossible otherwise. Anecdotal evidence of pissed off customers is there to be found but the data shows that the "loss of untold millions" just did not happen.