Actualités WestJet

[Né entre les rapides]

L'importance est une donnée (considération) subjective: important pour qui? --les communautés desservies, la compagnie? Ce qui est plus déterminant pour une compagnie privée, c'est la rentabilité. Notez que les deux considérations ne sont pas mutuellement exclusives.

[ERJ-Boy]

Ce sont des routes beaucoup plus business que VRA et LAS. Un coup qu'ils seront bien établis sur des lignes comme ça ce sera bien plus facile de faire des lignes plus VFR.

[mont royal]

What is important for YUL *is to what extent these additional flights *will bring new passengers here. Will Westjet actually attract passengers who would not have otherwise come here, or will it simply cut into AC 's traffic , perhaps even causing them to reduce traffic. Or, most likely perhaps, will it be a combination of both.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new hubbing *role for YUL, which will also be part of a growing perception by other airlines that they would be better off by increasing services to YUL.

[FlyboyMTL]

A very intertesting post from a thread at Airliners.net WestJet announcement in Montreal - Airliners.net (apparently from the WestJet inflight mag)

 

All this was signaled loud and clear in Saretsky's comments of the Jan 2017 issue of WJ's inflight magazine.

 

AC's YUL-YQB monopoly, not to mention YUL-BOS, underwrites a tremendous number under performing AC routes elsewhere in it's network.

 

AC will deny it it, but these additions are going to materially hurt AC's bottom line and be a tremendous service to long suffering clientele who have been subjected far too long to monopolistic pricing on a key Canadian business and VFR route.

 

On an average weekday in the winter, AC operates about 700 seats a day each way on YUL-YQB.

 

The route is shorter than YEG-YYC yet any fare booked within 3 days of departure is a minimum of $576 one way, dropping to $492 on day 4 and 5, and nothing less than $442 10 days out. The lowest one way fare booked within 35 days of the departure date is $301.

 

A same day YUL-YQB-YUL r/t, (145 miles each way), departing tomorrow morning, costs $1,288. A same day YYC-YEG-YYC r/t (152 miles), costs $439.16, a 66% reduction in fare. That's what people in Quebec City and Montreal can expect come June.

 

That market is going to be MASSIVELY stimulated, as has been the case everywhere else these sorts of short haul fare reductions have occurred. Business travelers who have limited travel due to the prohibitively expensive fares can now take 3 times as many same day round trips a year between these markets with very little change to their travel budget.

 

A same day r/t flight from YUL to BOS, (254 miles), tomorrow, Feb 13th will cost you, (hold on to your hat), $2,216. Similarly timed flights from YYZ to LGA tomorrow, (357 miles), cost $354, an 84% price reduction.

 

You're not going to be able to use an RMS to mitigate that sort of yield meltdown.

 

It goes to show that even after 21 years, there's still lots of low hanging fruit for WestJet to target.

[_mtler_]

WestJet shakes up Quebec market with new routes, increased capacity

 

Airline known for low fares delivers flights from $12 base fare, $99 total price

 

CALGARY, Feb. 13, 2017 /CNW/ - WestJet today announced a significant investment in Quebec's travel and tourism market with increased service and new routes to and from Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport as well as Quebec City's Jean Lesage International Airport. Overall, the airline is adding 105 more flights per week in the province, a capacity increase of 74 per cent.

 

"Our unique brand of great service and low fares has been embraced across Canada for more than 20 years and today, WestJet is here to offer more choice and competition to the Quebec market," said Bob Cummings, WestJet Executive Vice-President Commercial. "The people in Quebec have traditionally been served by a legacy carrier and WestJet believes this significant additional investment in the province will give leisure and corporate travellers a choice in airlines and bring lower fares to more than 8.2 million Quebecers. We look forward to flying hundreds of thousands of travellers to and from this beautiful province to enjoy the area and conduct business. As always, we are committed to making air travel in Canada better."

 

"The City of Montreal is pleased with the increased frequency of WestJet flights. The year 2017 marks Montreal's 375th anniversary and this announcement is perfectly timed to help to promote our city internationally while creating local jobs", said Harout Chitilian, Vice-President of the executive committee of the City of Montreal, responsible for information technology, smart city, administrative reform and youth.

 

Starting June 15, WestJet will begin point-to-point service for the first time within the province with four daily flights between Montreal and Quebec City. On March 15, WestJet will launch twice-daily service between Montreal and Halifax. And, on October 15, WestJet will begin twice-daily service between Montreal and Boston.

 

In addition, the airline will also increase its number of non-stop flights between Montreal and Vancouver from six per week to 12. WestJet's operations between Montreal and Calgary will increase from 14 flights per week to 19. The airline's Quebec City and Toronto service will add one more daily flight for a total of three. With the addition of WestJet's new services the airline will operate 195 weekly departures from Montreal and 50 departures from Quebec City by October 2017.

 

"I want to thank WestJet for its confidence and support to develop Montreal-Trudeau as a hub," said Phillipe Rainville, CEO of Aeroports de Montreal. "With these three destinations, WestJet will now offer an average of eight additional flights per day and 33 per cent more seats departing from Montreal, which is excellent news for our passengers."

 

All three new routes will be operated by WestJet's regional airline, WestJet Encore and its fleet of Canadian-made Bombardier Q400s. WestJet is proud to support this iconic Canadian company based in Montreal and flies the fourth largest fleet of Q400s in the world. By mid-2018, the regional airline will have a total of 45 aircraft.

 

Routes to Vancouver and Calgary will be operated on WestJet's fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft featuring the enhanced Plus product and WestJet Connect, WestJet's Wi-Fi connected, inflight entertainment system.

 

Details of WestJet's new non-stop service:

 

Route

Frequency

Departing

Arriving

Effective

Montreal – Quebec City

Four times daily

7:45 a.m.

12 p.m.

4 p.m.

8 p.m.

8:40 a.m.

12:55 p.m.

4:55 p.m.

8:55 p.m.

June 15, 2017

Quebec City – Montreal

Four times daily

6:15 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

2 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

7:07 a.m.

10:22 a.m.

2:52 p.m.

6:22 p.m.

June 15, 2017

Montreal – Halifax

Twice daily

9:15 a.m.

6:20 p.m.

11:57 a.m.

9 p.m.

March 15, 2017

Halifax – Montreal

Twice daily

7:45 a.m.

4:50 p.m.

8:43 a.m.

5:48 p.m.

March 15, 2017

Montreal – Boston

Twice daily

7:15 a.m.

4 p.m.

8:45 a.m.

5:30 p.m.

October 15, 2017

Boston – Montreal

Twice daily

9:25 a.m.

6:15 p.m.

10:57 a.m.

7:47 p.m.

October 15, 2017

 

 

Introductory one-way fares are available starting from:

 

Departing

Arriving

Air transportation charges (ATC)

Taxes,

fees and

charges

Total

one-way

price from

Base fare from

Other ATC

Montreal

Boston

$12.00

$0.00

$86.77

$99.00*CAD

Montreal

Halifax

$35.00

$18.00

$45.30

$98.00*CAD

Halifax

Montreal

$35.00

$18.00

$44.89

$98.00*CAD

Montreal

Quebec City

$31.00

$12.00

$43.76

$87.00*CAD

Quebec City

Montreal

$31.00

$12.00

$55.31

$98.00*CAD

 

 

*Book by February 20, 2017 (11:59 p.m. MT). Some restrictions apply. For more details, please visit westjet.com/quebec-en.

 

Today, as part of the celebration of increased service in Quebec, WestJet also announced that it is working with its partner, Big Brother Big Sisters of Montreal (BBBS) to give 10 "big and little" matches an experience of a lifetime with a trip between Montreal and Halifax. BBBS is one of eight national charities WestJet supports through WestJet Cares for Kids. In 2016, WestJet provided 452 gifts of flight through its community investment and WestJet Cares for Kids programs in Quebec.

[FlyboyMTL]

Im still surprised there wasn't more to this announcement.

[chris]

Did*Phillipe Rainville just say WS is developing YUL as a "hub"?

[_mtler_]

Increased competition is very welcomed. Flying between our Montreal/Halifax offices just got way cheaper. Thanks WestJet...paying $500 for a 1.5hr round trip is bananas. :mtl:

[Rusty]

This is wonderful news

[caribb]

I agree with everyone. This is wonderful news. Increased competition on core domestic routes and the start of business flights to the USA will only help YUL long term. Now might be the time to seriously start thinking about that new terminal that we've discussed here. I can forsee this as the first step towards starting flights to Europe as well. They are ramping up. Best news for Westjet since the day they first started flying here. Good to see finally.*