CALGARY --WestJet Airlines Ltd. is slashing fares to Los Angeles and San Francisco with a two-for-one seat sale, a sign the less-than-year-old routes are struggling to attract traffic, one industry analyst says.
The Calgary-based discount carrier, which launched a major expansion to the U.S. last fall, advertised the deal Wednesday for tickets from Calgary and Vancouver.
"I don't think WestJet has any choice except make those routes work," said Rick Erickson, an aviation consultant with R.P. Erickson & Associates in Calgary.
"It would certainly raise eyebrows as to how sincere WestJet was as to developing its U.S. gateways if it was to pull out of either one of those markets."
The highly competitive routes are also served by some U.S. carriers and Air Canada. Air Canada also announced a seat sale Wednesday that included Calgary-San Francisco and Vancouver-Los Angeles. There was no immediate response from Air Canada on whether it would match the WestJet discount.
WestJet acknowledged that passenger numbers on the U.S. routes have been a "little below" those on domestic flights, but the airline's research has shown that many travellers simply don't know about the new American routes that were originally announced in early 2004.
"We decided to do something with a big splash that would give us some awareness as well as fill up the planes for the summer," said Bob Cummings, WestJet's vice-president of marketing.
WestJet has offered "companion" fares in the past, but with more restrictions. Cummings said there are no plans to extend the deal to other U.S. routes.
"What you will see is us creating more awareness and promoting our U.S. routes more," he said. That will include some special offers, although not as aggressive as the deal advertised Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the airline announced it would raise domestic fares to cover rising fuel costs, following the lead of Air Canada, which increased prices a day earlier.
Air Canada was bankrupt, Jazz as wholly owned subsidary cannot actually file in that way. Now Air Ontario was close, Air BC had some trouble, and for the most part Air Nova made money.
Oh Yeah it's still funny, learn to laugh a little. You're going to give yourself an ulcer.
What ru talking about? AO was never close to being bankrupt. In the CRA/Air BC wars, those two took money from each other, but Air Ontario always did well, especially compared to their competition, like Ontario Express(Canadian Partner), City Express, etc. etc.
Thanks Blastor for the informative post - I was curious as why WJ went for a Jetsgo-style seat sale (considering how much Wj criticized Jetsgo for doing it).
Yeah, Rick Ericksons is entitled to his opinion. Here's mine.
I think WJ put on the sale for three reasons;
1) to respond to Alaska Air sale pricing
2) to garner some publicity on the routes (thank-you Erickson and Canwest)
3) to fill a very large number of seats on what are growing routes. Calgary to L.A. has gone from daily service to twice daily 5 days a week. Calgary-SFO is operating 5 times a week, up from 3.
Jaques Strappe wrote:Rick Erikson again? Where do these self proclaimed aviation experts come from anyway?
I haven't found one that can predict what day Christmas will fall on this year let alone make an intelligent prediction about this industry.
Until Westjet drops the route, I wouldn't listen to anything these idiots ( so called experts ) have to say.
Erikson has been singing from the AC hymn book for a while...he was even one of the few anylists flown to YYZ for the Celine promo in the hangar then interviewed by CBC. This was selected group and all expenses paid by AC...how do I know...was just speaking with him in the YYC terminal.
