National Post (National Edition)
WestJet to suspend global, U.S. flights
Cuts domestic schedule in half
WestJet Airlines Ltd. will suspend all international and U.S. flights for 30 days and cut its domestic schedule in half in light of the federal government’s request that all Canadians abroad come home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Calgary-based airline’s executives are also taking a pay cut as they plan for “major reductions” in the workforce as it parks its planes.
WestJet will operate scheduled international and U.S. flights until Sunday, March 22 at 11:59 p.m., chief executive Ed Sims said in a statement late Monday. After that, its planes will only cross the border to operate rescue and repatriation flights in partnership with Ottawa in an effort to bring Canadians home.
“Prime Minister Trudeau made an explicit declaration to all Canadians abroad that it is time to come home,” Sims said. “While this is a difficult time, we now have the responsibility as a Canadian airline to bring our citizens home.”
The airline will suspend all outbound international ticket sales between March 18 and March 22, and will stop selling tickets during the 30-day suspension.
It will reduce prices on remaining seats on flights to Canada to help passengers trying to return.
Sixty-seven flights were cancelled on Monday, another 165 flights on Tuesday.
The groundings will affect more than 60 per cent of WestJet’s revenue based on the last financial statements it released before going private in a deal with Onex that closed in December.
About 38 per cent of WestJet’s revenue came from international and U.S. flights in the first nine months of 2019. Fifty per cent of its revenue came from domestic flights.
“The current situation is unprecedented in aviation history and has escalated rapidly in the past week,” executive vice president Mark Porter said in the statement.
“We will have no choice but to reduce the number of WestJetters.”
Effective immediately, WestJet will cut pay for its executive leadership team by 20 per cent and for directors and vice-presidents by 10 per cent.
The airline is asking staffers to consider voluntary measures like leaves and early retirements. It has also implemented a hiring freeze, stopped all internal promotions, cancelled non-essential travel and training events and started plans to reduce the number of contractors.
It’s asking vendors to reduce current contracts or allow for delayed payments.
WestJet will cut capital spending by 75 per cent.
Call centre volumes are high. Passengers can now cancel up to two hours before a flight.
Passengers with questions about flights should visit the My Trips portal on WestJet’s website.
Vacation airline Sunwing Travel Group is also cancelling all southbound flights as of Tuesday to April 9 to focus instead on repatriating the 100,000 customers it has abroad. Customers who were supposed to travel during that time are eligible for refunds.
On Monday, Sunwing operated three rescue flights from Toronto and one from Montreal to bring more than 500 Canadians home from Honduras, Aruba, Panama and St. Maarten — countries that plan to close their borders imminently.
“It’s important that we do our part to contain the spread of COVID-19, while assuring our customers and their families that we are fully committed to bring each and every one of them home to Canada,” Sunwing chief executive Stephen Hunter said in a statement.
Air Transat has also cancelled dozens of flights both to and from Canada, according to the latest updates on its website.
If it is not able to offer passengers an alternative flight, it will credit the cost of the flight for future travel within 12 months.
Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, has also cancelled dozens of flights and suspended dozens of flights until later in April or May. Affected destinations include Copenhagen, Israel and Casablanca.
Airlines around the world are facing similar problems and will need as much as US$200 billion of government support to help them survive the coronavirus crisis, the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday.
“If we want to maintain a strong airline sector able to cope with this difficult crisis and provide the resources to ensure the recovery will happen in due time, we need governments to act strongly and quickly,” according to IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac.
Many airlines have high debt levels and are fast running out of cash, IATA chief economist Brian Pearce said in a media call. The typical airline had enough cash for about two months of operations at the start of the year, according to his presentation.