WestJet to boost Alberta flights, citing a looming recovery

After cutting Alberta flights during the recession, WestJet Airlines said Monday it’s confident in the province’s recovery and would scale up its winter schedule to fly more through Alberta than before the downturn hit.

In fact, the Calgary-based airline said it’s adding more capacity than what local economic conditions actually justify.

WestJet said it would add 52 flights a week out of its home city this winter, including increased service on a dozen routes and a new weekly flight to Belize.

The new flights represent a seven per cent boost in WestJet’s departures from YYC over the 2016 winter, said Brian Znotins, a vice-president who oversees flight schedules.

Citing economic forecasts that suggest Alberta is expected to lead the country in GDP growth this year after a painful slump, Znotins said WestJet will be “growing our capacity alongside that recovery.”

Edmonton will also see 24 more weekly flights this winter.

“We will be bigger (in Alberta) than before we scaled back our capacity,” Znotins, the vice-president of network planning, alliances and corporate development, said in an interview.

As part of its revamped schedule, WestJet said it’s increasing the number of connecting flights that land in Calgary by 55 per cent. These flights begin and end outside of the city, but touch down in Calgary somewhere in between, increasing service at a time that local economic conditions may not justify it.

“Even though the economy is

We will be bigger (in Alberta) than before we scaled back our capacity.

just starting to recover, we’re adding a bit more capacity than what the economic growth would warrant because we’re adding connectivity in Calgary,” Znotins said.

For instance, customers who travel from Vancouver to Calgary to Phoenix likely “have nothing to do with the Alberta economy,” the airline executive said.

“Being able to target those kinds of guests and diversify ourselves away from the energy economy actually helps us to grow Calgary with a lower risk profile than if we were just carrying Calgarians,” he said.

WestJet has previously estimated Alberta’s recession, triggered by a collapse in oil prices, had drained $1 billion from the province’s travel economy from 2015 to early 2016.

Budget-conscious Albertans who curbed their air travel had posed a challenge for WestJet, given that a quarter of its flights originate in the prairie province.

The airline announced in early 2016 it would discount fares and reshuffle flights to eastern Canadian markets where the economy was stronger. It had planned to cut five per cent of its Alberta capacity over 2015 levels, which CEO Gregg Saretsky called a “massive” shift at the time.

WestJet ended up cutting only two per cent of its Alberta capacity on any given month in the last six months of 2016, compared to 2015 levels, according to Znotins.

It started to increase service again in the spring due to increased demand. As the loonie strengthened against the U.S. greenback, more customers have been flying to U.S. destinations, such as Las Vegas and New York.

“Both WestJet and Air Canada are seeing, at least on a year-overyear basis, some strength (in Alberta),” said Cameron Doerksen, an analyst at National Bank Financial.

“It’s still not back to where it was by a long shot.”