WestJet announces massive expansion at YYZ

[CathayPacific]

Effective Apr 18 2004, WestJet will start the following services:
Toronto-Montreal 39/weekly
Toronto-Ottawa 32/weekly
Toronto-Halifax 7/weekly
Montreal-Winnipeg 7/weekly
Halifax-St. John's 4/weekly
Halifax-Gander 3/weekly
Vancouver-Saskatoon 1/weekly

Hamilton-Ottawa, Hamilton-Montreal, Hamilton-St. John's, Hamilton-Gander, Ottawa-St. John's, Ottawa-Gander will cease to operate.

Calgary-Toronto, Thunder Bay-Toronto, Calgary-Vancouver, Toronto-Winnipeg, Abbortsford-Calgary, Edmonton-Vancouver, Ottawa-Winnipeg will all see increase in services.

It will also move to the new T1 from T3 at YYZ on that day.

[a78jumper]

It will be interesting to see if they can pull this one off....the Canadian airline corporate history is littered with has beens that tried and failed to fight Air Canada, eg Wardair, Canada 3000, Royal, CanJet 1 and finally Canadian. Perhaps in its weakened state AC has no more oomph.

Sounds like YHM as a hib is decreasing in importance.
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[ptbodale]

Air Canada has lots of ooomph. It will be amazing to see how Westjet does once they have big dealings with Lou Turpin and the GTA. It will only take a couple of the GTAA's great ground delay programmes and their spraying operation to bring them to their knees. Lou and his boys have already taken YYZ into the big league for airport charges.

It will be tough breaking into the triangle.
YYZ-YUL 39 flights per week equals 5 flts per day (4 left over). AC has up to 22 per day
YYZ-YOW 32 flights per week equals 4 flts per day (4 left over). AC has up to 17 per day
YYZ-YHZ 7 flights per week or 1 daily service. AC has up to 7 per day

Get the drift. Competition is welcome. YHM is the big looser here. Westjet promised YHM loads of service, however WJ is having trouble getting those acft filled from YHM.

[DAL767-400ER]

AC may have overcome many competitors, but nowadays AC is in their worst financial shape ever, despite having a near-monopoly in several markets. Plus, Canadians are fed up with AC's service, and WJ probably has the best perspective of all AC competitors.

[mason]

This is fantastic news and just the beginning of WestJet's plan to impact AC's domestic operations from YYZ. Time to kick em while they're down.

I also believe WestJet is going to make a huge dent into Jetsgo's market share as well, which is also going to be very interesting!

But unfortunately, that's the nature of business. AC has mucked it all up for themselves big time, and it's good to see an airline doing things right for a change! Go WestJet!

:clap:

[YVR737]

boy this is interesting...you know i wonder if they got some kind of deal??? YHM is at capacity plus they say this is not permenant if you read the press release. THey also have a hangar in YHM so maybe its a message to YHM to hurry up and build a terminal.... WHo knows in all good move if the fees arent too high. Looks like WJ is becoming less and less no frills

[YYG]

I also believe WestJet is going to make a huge dent into Jetsgo's market share as well, which is also going to be very interesting!

I think you're right mason. Jetsgo is going to be hurt by WJ entering the YUL, YOW, and even the YHZ triangle by flying from YYZ. Jetsgo just announced they are adding capacity to YHZ for 3 daily flights, and is in the process of setting up a new F/A and pilot base there as well.
This could get pretty ugly :wink:

[Noise]

WOW this is a doozie!

[Myblock]

Ofcourse Regina isn't seeing any new service, no surprise there :roll: It'd be nice if we also got a YVR-YQR service like Saskatoon. We had one but Air Canada quit serving it when it was taken over from Canadian.
Oh well, atleast we aren't seeing decreased service.

[biman]

I have been travelling mostly on greyhound from Ottawa to tornonto for a long time.Over the past five years, greyhound one way prices has gone up from $30(one way) to $55. On the other hand, plane fares has gone down form $300 to about $90. if it goes below $75, good byeGreyhound, and welcome WEstjet/Jetsgo/Aircanada.

[CathayPacific]

I have been travelling mostly on greyhound from Ottawa to tornonto for a long time.Over the past five years, greyhound one way prices has gone up from $30(one way) to $55. On the other hand, plane fares has gone down form $300 to about $90. if it goes below $75, good byeGreyhound, and welcome WEstjet/Jetsgo/Aircanada.

Don't forget that there are fuel surcharge, insurance surcharge, NAVCanada fees, security fees, airport usage fees (for some airports) and of course tax to add to your bill when you travel by air. So your $75 one way YOW-YYZ ticket will probably end up at $175 or even $275.

But if bus is really that expensive, I guess you may consider VIARail. There are 5 trains a day travelling between Ottawa and Toronto. It's about $65 one way and all you pay on top of that is GST/HST. It's about the same price as Greyhound but at least it's more comfortable. It takes 4 hrs to travel from Ottawa downtown to Toronto downtown by train.

[Noise]

So what's the reason behind moving the hub to Toronto from Hamilton?

[YXU737]

I am guessing to compete more with Air Canada and the load factors were'nt what Westjet wanted meaning that they were too low........I hate seeing service go out of YHM but what can you do....... and cutting flights from certain cities like YXU....

[biman]

Don't forget that there are fuel surcharge, insurance surcharge, NAVCanada fees, security fees, airport usage fees (for some airports) and of course tax to add to your bill when you travel by air. So your $75 one way YOW-YYZ ticket will probably end up at $175 or even $275.

I have included all kind of charges/taxes in my prices.
Currently aircanada's tango price is $59, and with taxes and various charges its usually around $90.

Sometimes Jetsgo offers $49 web fare, with taxes/charges it's about $77.

If we add taxes to Via's price its about $75, last time i have checked.
but I am not a big fan of train travel.

So far i have tried rental cars, greyhound, personal car & Aircanada.
Maybe it will be westjet in the April.

[Airnerd]

This isn't a complete withdrawal from Hamilton is it? Will they retain any Hamilton service?

[mason]

It's purely economics and strategic planning.

YHM provided WJ a cost effective way of getting their name out in Eastern Canada and making a presence. Now that WJ has expanded right across the country, it makes sense to review current routes and alter those that are not cost effective, or not cost-effective enough.

It's also a great opportunity to really take after AC since their popularity among the travelling public is very low (their own fault). WJ can now establish themselves into YYZ and penetrate AC's domestic routes from this airport.

WJ is also able to smack Jetsgo around a bit and show them who's boss. Since Jetsgo has been slowly adding more routes and more aircraft to their fleet, WJ can take the chance at YYZ and try and turn the tide on the competition.

All in all, it's going to be a hell of a year for the Canadian airline industry. I'm fully onside with WestJet 100% and can't wait to see the results!

:D

[CanadaEH]

No this is not a complete withdrawl. Service still exists in YHM from YYC, YEG, YWG, YQT, YQM, and YHZ - but which much less frequency. Hamilton was told by Westjet years ago that growth was coming, but the Hamilton Airport Authority failed to act (build a new terminal) in time. At its present state, YHM can't handle anymore flights; capacity has been reached. Also, the YHM-YOW/YUL routes were not making money, so they were cut from YHM and moved to YYZ.

[YXU737]

when westjet reduces flights from certain airports it will be giving a chance for other airlines such as jetsgo or canjet to move in.