When Kerri Froc, a frequent WestJet passenger, saw the airline’s announcement about winter service suspensions to Eastern Canada, she told herself she would never fly with the airline again.
This week, WestJet announced it would be suspending service to Fredericton, Sydney, N.S., Charlottetown, and Quebec City to focus on sun and leisure destinations and better connections to Western Canada.
The suspension will come into effect on Nov. 15. Service between now and then will not be affected, according to the statement by the Calgary-based airline.
Unhappy travellers
A professor of law at University of New Brunswick, Froc said she would often fly with WestJet out of Fredericton International Airport, especially before the pandemic, for both work-related and leisure flights to Halifax, Toronto and Saskatchewan.
But she’s been unhappy with the airline’s service for a number of years now, she said.
The announcement is “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” and she’s considering cancelling her WestJet rewards credit card.
“This is just part and parcel of a lack of respect for customers and a lack of customer service. So I’m extremely unhappy,” said Froc. “I won’t fly them again if I can help it.”
Re-evaluation of business model
Because of pressure WestJet is facing from competitors such as Lynx Air and Flair Airlines in Western Canada, the airline is re-evaluating its strengths and weaknesses, according to Karl Moore, an airline industry analyst and professor at McGill University.
The airline is also going to move to smaller, narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing 737 max jets, said Moore.
“It requires fewer people on them for them to make money, so they can take routes which are not as thick in terms of number of passengers and still be good business people,” he said.
Moore said that business people who travel to and from Ontario and Quebec will be affected, but the change may also hurt tourism in the province, he said.
“It will make it harder to go see that beautiful part of the world,” said Moore.
What’s to change
The biggest change that air travellers might notice is fuller flights, Moore said.
“If you cancel from three flights to two, it means that the other two flights are probably going to be more full. So that’s probably the only thing you’ll really notice is that the planes might be a bit fuller.”
While Kate O’Rourke, the spokesperson for Fredericton International Airport, was disappointed when she heard the announcement, she said she understands that airlines are still trying to figure out how to navigate the post-pandemic world.