Customers shrug off threats against WestJet

Long-term effect on airline’s bottom line may be minimal, experts say

If a string of threats against WestJet has made travellers more skittish, they weren’t showing it Friday at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

The airline has received five threats since June 27. The latest came on Thursday, when the airline confirmed on Twitter that a threat was made against flight WS 1709, which landed in Victoria after 6 p.m. The airline tweeted that the threat was not credible.

WestJet also received threats on June 29, June 30 and July 1.

A threat was also made against an Air Canada flight on July 1, a spokes- person confirmed by email. The threat was found to be not credible.

Near an orderly line at a WestJet desk in Pearson’s Terminal 3 on Friday, customers showed no signs of stress or anxiety.

Shirley Reeves, who was flying to Charlottetown to visit family, offered the verbal equivalent of a shrug.

“If it happens, it happens,” said Reeves. “There’s nothing you can do about it, really.”

Bob Nicoll, who was flying home to Vancouver with his wife, also said he had nothing to worry about.

“The percentages and chances of it happening are next to zero,” said Nicoll, looking relaxed as he sat near a neat pile of luggage.

A WestJet spokesperson declined to answer questions submitted by email, including one about how the airline is compensating passengers who were delayed as a result of the threats. The Star also asked which law enforcement agencies WestJet had communicated with and how the airline was responding to the threats.

“These incidents are now active criminal investigations, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment,” Robert Palmer, manager of public relations for WestJet, said by email.

The RCMP has taken on a “national co-ordination role” as authorities investigate the threats, RCMP Staff Sgt. Julie Gagnon said.

“All the threats that have been made, that have made the news, those are the ones that we’re overseeing,” Gagnon said.

Experts the Star spoke with agreed that the long-term impact on WestJet’s bottom line would likely be minimal.

Ramy Elitzur, a professor of financial analysis in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, recalled the 9/11 attacks and other events far more dramatic than the threats against WestJet, and said they only create a minor “blip” for airlines.

“A few months later, it was business as usual,” Elitzur said. “In the long run, it has zero effect. No effect whatsoever.”

The total cost of the threats, which will impact public agencies and private business, would be impossible to quantify, Elitzur said.

Karl Moore, a professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, doesn’t believe the threats will discourage many people from flying.

“We’re Canadians. We’re sensible. It’s all been hoaxes,” Moore said.

That could change if the threats continue, Moore said. And any airline responding to a threat, authentic or not, has to put their customers up in hotels, and cover other costs, such as additional fuel.

For WestJet customer Sue St. Michael, the threats were enough to put her on edge, but it would take more to frighten her out of travelling. Despite feeling anxious before her flight to Vancouver, she remains an enthusiastic WestJet customer.

“I want to believe that this will pass and that people will not . . . be afraid to fly WestJet,” St. Michael said.

“I want to believe that this will pass and that people will not . . . be afraid to fly WestJet.” SUE ST. MICHAEL AIRLINE CUSTOMER