WestJet Announcement.

[jpilot77]

https://calgaryherald.com/business/wes ... or-airline

Thoughts?

[Dias]

I think they never should have tried to expand to be a widebody international airline. At least they have the sense now to try and take it back after such a costly blunder. Why would an airline based on the Southwest model deviate from said model?

[rudder]

Get it over with and buy TRZ.

WJ CEO has decided that offering a ‘premium’ product is not in the plans. The 330/321 fleet and overseas routes will add value at an acquisition price that will cost pennies on the dollar compared to starting in-house. Get rid of the 787’s.

Once the dust settles, we will be back to 2 large competing airlines. There will always be others, but most will disappear. If one or two survive, just sign interline agreements with them.

Whatever the 1996 vision was of WJ is gone.

[WellThatAgedWell]

TRZ market cap is under 150 million today.

Long term steal at that price. Shareholders probably vote no at that price but maybe the other option is to lose it all if this recession drags some airlines under.

[Latitude]

TRZ market cap is under 150 million today.

Long term steal at that price. Shareholders probably vote no at that price but maybe the other option is to lose it all if this recession drags some airlines under.

Yeah but ONEX and Westjet are bad. Hopefully they dont touch us.

[RippleRock]

Why exactly would ONEX want to buy Transat? Do you think they want to import all the problems with integrating a French language carrier based in Quebec, with fleet types Westjet has never operated? I'm sure they've looked carefully at the financials and decided that the core 737 based business that was such a success for Westjet to begin with was always the most stable and financially viable.

What exactly is wrong with going back to their roots and staying there?

Canada never needed two international full service airlines. There are plenty of other options besides AC for Canadian travelers like BA, KLM and Lufty for starters....dozens of others out of YYZ, YUL and YVR.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Southwest has consistently made a profit through good times and bad. There IMO are 2 reasons for this

1) The top brass were operators, not MBA bean counters, so they understood why sweating the operational details was so important.

2) They never deviated from their business model.

Westjet used to be like that which not surprisingly made them very successful. Then there was a revolving door of new management who knew the cost of everyone, but had no idea of the value of anyone. The new guy is just another skinny suit with no clue how to actually run an airline.

[goingmissed]

Southwest has consistently made a profit through good times and bad. There IMO are 2 reasons for this

1) The top brass were operators, not MBA bean counters, so they understood why sweating the operational details was so important.

2) They never deviated from their business model.

Westjet used to be like that which not surprisingly made them very successful. Then there was a revolving door of new management who knew the cost of everyone, but had no idea of the value of anyone. The new guy is just another skinny suit with no clue how to actually run an airline.

There was a lot of name calling by top management today and a message that both employees and employer are to blame for a tense relationship, ignoring the power differential between the two.

[Airbrake]

Southwest has consistently made a profit through good times and bad. There IMO are 2 reasons for this

1) The top brass were operators, not MBA bean counters, so they understood why sweating the operational details was so important.

2) They never deviated from their business model.

Westjet used to be like that which not surprisingly made them very successful. Then there was a revolving door of new management who knew the cost of everyone, but had no idea of the value of anyone. The new guy is just another skinny suit with no clue how to actually run an airline.

There was a lot of name calling by top management today and a message that both employees and employer are to blame for a tense relationship, ignoring the power differential between the two.

Was this name calling by top management during the video chat? I will have to re-watch it if that is where you saw it.
I didn’t hear or see any comments like that, but I may have missed them.

[JBI]

Southwest has consistently made a profit through good times and bad. There IMO are 2 reasons for this

1) The top brass were operators, not MBA bean counters, so they understood why sweating the operational details was so important.

2) They never deviated from their business model.

Westjet used to be like that which not surprisingly made them very successful. Then there was a revolving door of new management who knew the cost of everyone, but had no idea of the value of anyone. The new guy is just another skinny suit with no clue how to actually run an airline.

Southwest was started by Herb Kehler (he had a BA in English and philosophy and a JD (law degree) and Rollin King who had an MBA (also was a pilot).

The "new guy" has a PhD in astrophysics, worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (Large aviation consulting firm), 12 years in Management at Lufthansa (including 4 as CCO) and then 4 years as CEO of Austrian Airlines. If anyone knows how to run an airline, I figure he's a good candidate.

[palebird]

Finally came to their senses. Regroup in YYC. They had completely gone off the rails trying to become AC #2. With this type of restructuring they stand a chance of surviving the upcoming recession which will obliterate eastern Canada.

[lostaviator]

How embarrassing this whole thing must be for our previous CEO.

How do you say good riddance in Maori?

[Canadaflyer46]

How embarrassing this whole thing must be for our previous CEO.

How do you say good riddance in Maori?

Hahahahahaha. Oh man that was priceless

[cloak]

The best way the announcement was categorized was “pragmatic”. With the politicized pandemic, high inflation, looming recession, there is going to be little demand for business travel. Hit pause on WB growth, back to basics, regroup and reassess in a couple years. Hopefully there will be a business friendly government in place by then with people who know about economics! In the meantime, there is going to be plenty to do with the merger and NB consolidation and growth.

As for Transat, it has firmly placed itself out of the market in which it operates, with multiple complexities and little benefit if any to WestJet, and certainly none that cannot be achieved with a codeshare. WestJet should stay away.

[Launchpad1]

upcoming recession which will obliterate eastern Canada.

hahahaha that's a pretty sweeping statement.

[Hangry]

The coles notes read: Due to completely inept management WJ can’t compete with AC so they’re going to pretend it’s 1998 again.

[Greasy Greaser]

Just can't win here on AvCanada and telegram lol.

Expand too much too quickly with shitty service compared to everyone else (current WJ) and you'll get pilots bashing the airline.

Slow down at one of the most expensive airports in North America that is oversaturated and understaffed and focus on more direct flights out west which is booming since YYZ is unlivable now and impending recession on the horizon; pilots are mad.

damned if you do, damned if you don't.

There is probably a good reason why this is done, Lynx coming up in YYC, Flair wants to do more, less chance of government denying WJ the Sunwing purchase which is a big one, oh ya, and a recession. Flying on a Q400 sucks as a pax, I don't think anyone will disagree, why do we need sooo many connecting flights with them, bring back the direct flights! The YYZ 737 isn't going anywhere unless you have some super secret higher up knowledge that wasn't shared with the rest of us including our CEO.

Let Flair and Lynx go out east more with this and let them drain their funds fighting AC head on and still WJ, they won't win east or west now whereas before the west was sorta up for grabs as WJ has been dropping the ball hard lately.

Time will tell what happens, gonna be a while before we start seeing some real results, not overnight. Probably the first time I've been not extremely disappointed with management in the last number of years. Though, we'll see how CA negotiations go, whole different game.

[palebird]

hahahaha that's a pretty sweeping statement.

Yes it is.Looked south of the border lately? Been around in the late 70's and 80's? This is going to be quite a show with a completely out of touch fed govt denying that anything is wrong. Wowsers. To stabilise this situation, at some point interest rates must exceed inflation. Real inflation not the doctored govt numbers.That is exactly what happened last time we had inflation like this.Somebody had to step up to the plate and do the dirty work..But not before the economy took a real good kick in the teeth. And this time around people are far deeper in debt and far more illiterate when it comes to economics 101.
Sooooooooo......how do you think 20% interest rates will affect life? Yeah I thought so. Good luck.

[Latitude]

The best way the announcement was categorized was “pragmatic”. With the politicized pandemic, high inflation, looming recession, there is going to be little demand for business travel. Hit pause on WB growth, back to basics, regroup and reassess in a couple years. Hopefully there will be a business friendly government in place by then with people who know about economics! In the meantime, there is going to be plenty to do with the merger and NB consolidation and growth.

As for Transat, it has firmly placed itself out of the market in which it operates, with multiple complexities and little benefit if any to WestJet, and certainly none that cannot be achieved with a codeshare. WestJet should stay away.

That's only your opinion. Either way, Transat and Westjet clearly isnt a good match. Totally different fleet, different thinking, different market, etc.

[co-joe]

Sort of looks like WS is running away from the impending fight with Porter out east as the latter gets jets. Let big red take them on head to head. Let Sunwing do battle with Transat (and profit from both), and let Swoop compete with Flair and Lynx. It feels like Westjet had crossed a bridge too far and finally realised it.

Could also be that they realise that half of Encore's pilots are getting ready to leave, and if they don't bring more capacity to yyc they might lose their regional presence there with limited ability to back up attrition with mainline might.