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WestJet Update: 20 April – Updates Domestic Flight Schedule

From WestJet

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WESTJET UPDATES DOMESTIC FLIGHT SCHEDULE FROM MAY 5 THROUGH JUNE 4  

WestJet is making changes to its domestic flight schedule, removing approximately 4,000 weekly flights or 600 daily flights from May 5 through June 4, 2020. These changes are required to address significantly reduced guest demand during the COVID-19 crisis.   

While some city pairings have been temporarily removed, we continue to serve the 38 Canadian airports to which we currently operate, ensuring that those with essential travel requirements can get where they need to be and that cargo goods like blood, medical products and food supplies can continue to flow.   

The overall demand for travel remains fluid during this ongoing pandemic and we continue to evaluate further reductions. Bookings and full schedule details are available at westjet.com. All transborder and international routes remain suspended at this time through June 4, 2020.   

For guests with travel booked after May 5 through June 4, we are proactively notifying them of their options.  

The following city pairs have been temporarily removed from May 5-June 4, 2020:  

Market   Previous frequency  
Vancouver – Nanaimo   2x daily  
Vancouver – Comox   1x daily  
Vancouver – Regina   4x weekly  
Vancouver – Saskatoon   5x weekly  
Vancouver – Winnipeg   3x daily  
Vancouver – Fort St. John   1x daily  
Vancouver – Cranbrook   1x daily  
Vancouver – Ottawa   1x daily  
Vancouver – Montreal   6x weekly  
Kelowna – Victoria   12x weekly  
Calgary – Prince George   1x daily  
Calgary – Ottawa   2x daily  
Calgary – Montreal   13x weekly  
Calgary – London, ON   1x daily  
Calgary – Halifax   17x weekly  
Edmonton – Comox   6x weekly  
Edmonton – Victoria   20x weekly  
Edmonton – Kelowna   7x daily  
Edmonton – Grande Prairie   13x weekly  
Edmonton – Yellowknife   1x daily  
Edmonton – Saskatoon   3x daily  
Edmonton – Regina   3x daily  
Edmonton – Winnipeg   20x weekly  
Edmonton – Ottawa   2x weekly  
Edmonton – Halifax   5x weekly  
Winnipeg – Ottawa   1x daily  
Winnipeg – Regina   1x daily  
Winnipeg – Halifax   1x daily  
Toronto – Victoria   4x weekly  
Toronto – Edmonton   5 to 7x daily  
Toronto – Regina   10x weekly  
Toronto – Saskatoon   12x weekly  

REPATRIATION FLIGHT SCHEDULE 

WestJet has the following international repatriation flights scheduled: 

  • April 20, 2020 from Georgetown (GEO), Guyana to Toronto (YYZ)  
    Departs 3:30 p.m. (local) arrives 9:54 p.m.  
  • April 20, 2020 from Grand Cayman (GCM) to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) to Toronto (YYZ) 
    Departs 12:00 p.m., 3:13 p.m. (local), arrives 6:16 p.m. 
  • April 23, 2020 from Guatemala City, Guatamala (GUA) to Toronto (YYZ) 

FLEXIBLE CHANGE/CANCEL POLICY   

  • More details on our policies are available here

AFFECTED FLIGHTS – visit the blog (updated) 

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Judging by recent large layoffs and other news, it seems that WestJet Group continues to be challenged by its labour relations as evidently its pilot group has not been able to garner as cordial a relationship with its management as Air Canada has. Unless they can follow the clear pattern that is emerging in aviation and other industries to mitigate layoffs by agreeing to reduced hours, and foster a more cooperative relationship with management, turmoil will continue. Not only by the virtue of its cash reserves, but more importantly seemingly better labour relations, Air Canada will be able to weather this storm better.

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15 minutes ago, MD2 said:

Judging by recent large layoffs and other news, it seems that WestJet Group continues to be challenged by its labour relations as evidently its pilot group has not been able to garner as cordial a relationship with its management as Air Canada has. Unless they can follow the clear pattern that is emerging in aviation and other industries to mitigate layoffs by agreeing to reduced hours, and foster a more cooperative relationship with management, turmoil will continue.

Or perhaps WestJet is being more realistic about what it can afford to offer its pilots than some other carriers are.

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Speaking of realities, it is the current reality of the market, all industries, that are reducing hours to keep more people on the payroll and reduce the impact. It also helps the companies that while reducing their current financial burden, they remain largely intact to recover better on the other side.

Besides, one would have thought unions are about well "unity", one for all and all for one! Perhaps not so much!

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"helps the companies... to recover better on the other side"

Why should labour take the hit for that? Pilot salaries are such a small part of the overall cost picture, you could work for free and it would amount to the company saving 1¢ on every dollar in their budget.

So you devalue your pay to the point where everyone is hurting just to help the billionaires' equity fund? At the company that has been turning profits for 20 years? 

I would imagine the downbid into Encore is going to be quite the event for Westjet.

I would be surprised if all the layoffs happen, the amount of training required likely can't be supported and by the time they ramp it up this crisis will be over.

I applaud ALPA if they mostly maintained their pay. Unions are also about calling the management's bluff and not just giving it up. Onex isn't going to shut down WJ. Their company isn't at risk. 

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You and other devoted members can applaud ALPA all you want, but the fact is that the approach of "calling management's bluff" will work to pilots' own detriment. It is also divorced from the current realities of the market when clearly there is very little flying and very few passengers. This is evident in arrangements that other airlines have had including Air Canada, U.S carriers, Emirates all have slashed their hours to reflect the realities of the market and save cash. Unless you are of the opinion that your management concocted the Covid 19 to reduce your hours, in which case there are an abundance of conspiracy theorists you can join. One would even stipulate that working cooperatively to reduce the financial impact, is a condition for participating in government subsidies.

Some airlines have shut down their operations altogether, and this is a better way to preserve cash to help them recover better on the other side. And helping their companies recover better on the other side is what employees would want to do in order to have a financially healthy company to return to. This paranoia that management is only there to screw the poor workers into destitution is a dangerous approach that will make for an antagonistic confrontational work environment that will harm the workers more than any other group. Also, keep in mind that as far as controlling costs go, employee cost is the only cost management can negotiate and control, otherwise fuel, airport fees, navigation fees, taxes, are all external.

Lastly, during these hard times did ALPA give you a discount on their dues? Likely not! Do they pay you back any portion of your dues once you're laid off? Perhaps not! What is their approach for furloughed pilots these days? I recall post 911 they shut down their web site for out of work Canada 3000 pilots and left two days after! I wonder what their plan is this time?!!

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1 hour ago, MD2 said:

You and other devoted members can applaud ALPA all you want, but the fact is that the approach of "calling management's bluff" will work to pilots' own detriment. It is also divorced from the current realities of the market when clearly there is very little flying and very few passengers. This is evident in arrangements that other airlines have had including Air Canada, U.S carriers, Emirates all have slashed their hours to reflect the realities of the market and save cash. Unless you are of the opinion that your management concocted the Covid 19 to reduce your hours, in which case there are an abundance of conspiracy theorists you can join. One would even stipulate that working cooperatively to reduce the financial impact, is a condition for participating in government subsidies.

Some airlines have shut down their operations altogether, and this is a better way to preserve cash to help them recover better on the other side. And helping their companies recover better on the other side is what employees would want to do in order to have a financially healthy company to return to. This paranoia that management is only there to screw the poor workers into destitution is a dangerous approach that will make for an antagonistic confrontational work environment that will harm the workers more than any other group. Also, keep in mind that as far as controlling costs go, employee cost is the only cost management can negotiate and control, otherwise fuel, airport fees, navigation fees, taxes, are all external.

Lastly, during these hard times did ALPA give you a discount on their dues? Likely not! Do they pay you back any portion of your dues once you're laid off? Perhaps not! What is their approach for furloughed pilots these days? I recall post 911 they shut down their web site for out of work Canada 3000 pilots and left two days after! I wonder what their plan is this time?!!

Yet another anti-ALPA rant.

The FA unions are not job sharing. Huge numbers will be on layoff status the moment the CEWS expires. Where is your anti- CUPE diatribe? How about the AME unions?

What ACPA did made sense because AC is a massive multi-fleet/multi-Base airline. Think UA/DL/AA. Reducing pilots is a complicated, expensive, and time consuming exercise. And most of these carriers first entered in to early retirement incentive programs for pilots. AC and ACPA placed a bet that the downturn in travel demand will be short lived. There is no one now that believes it to be the case. Watch for all of the US carriers and AC to be making moves to set staffing levels appropriate for a smaller 2021 footprint. They have a window from now until Sept 30 to implement that pilot staffing plan. Oct 01 is the drop dead date for any employment guarantee undertakings.

As for WJ, it is a more complicated analysis with the ability for surplus WJ pilots to bump down in to the wholly-owned Encore operation. Therefore, WJ pilot lay-off mitigation via job sharing provides a benefit to the corporation as well as to the pilot group. That must be factored in to any potential temporary solution, acknowledging the realities of not just the present but also the future.

I would spend more time focusing on when (or if?) your own operation is going to reopen.

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Well rudder, since you're such an ALPA proponent, perhaps you can share the wisdom why is it that your organization does not give its members a break during tough times in the dues it collects and why does it not provide top up pay to its furloughed pilots? I believe CAW does, or at least used to.

Employees involved may mean well but are taken advantage of in essentially a pyramid scheme with a clever slogan that "members decide their own fate by volunteerism", which essentially means they do all the hard work while their dues disappear! If these organizations dedicated professionals to do the work such as legal matters, counseling for employees, it may have been worthwhile. But during crises staff are often left wondering about their fate with no access to professionals to actually guide them. That is why such organizations do not belong to modern times. With all new technologies, employees are much better served with a direct all-inclusive connection and relationship. 

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14 minutes ago, MD2 said:

Well rudder, since you're such an ALPA proponent, perhaps you can share the wisdom why is it that your organization does not give its members a break during tough times in the dues it collects and why does it not provide top up pay to its furloughed pilots? I believe CAW does, or at least used to.

Employees involved may mean well but are taken advantage of in essentially a pyramid scheme with a clever slogan that "members decide their own fate by volunteerism", which essentially means they do all the hard work while their dues disappear! If these organizations dedicated professionals to do the work such as legal matters, counseling for employees, it may have been worthwhile. But during crises staff are often left wondering about their fate with no access to professionals to actually guide them. That is why such organizations do not belong to modern times. With all new technologies, employees are much better served with a direct all-inclusive connection and relationship. 

Furloughed members pay no dues but continue to be represented and maintain entitlement to other benefits that were directly subscribed (optional life insurance/optional loss of licence insurance/Best Doctors/etc).

Non-furloughed members receive the exact same level of service and representation even though their respective group may be paying just a fraction of their prior gross dues. Most members do not consider a tax deductible sub 2% dues obligation to be onerous considering the benefits derived. 

This is not ALPA’s first recession rodeo. I don’t think it needs advice from any anti-organized labour senior management types.

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Sadly, you presume to know more than you actually do!

Some union reps, once "elected" to office become divorced from the realities of line staff and fall into self aggrandization and intrigue!

At any rate, I hope ALPA doesn't become the kiss of death for WestJet that it was for Canada's former second largest airlines, Canada 3000. 

Although difficult, divorcing a union is possible if it doesn't serve the needs of the people. Good luck to WestJet people.

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3 hours ago, j.k. said:

I would imagine the downbid into Encore is going to be quite the event for Westjet.
 

That is going to be interesting... I question how many people who have the seniority to have survived are going to willing to go Encore unless they owe a lot of alimony.

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39 minutes ago, MD2 said:

Sadly, you presume to know more than you actually do!

Some union reps, once "elected" to office become divorced from the realities of line staff and fall into self aggrandization and intrigue!

At any rate, I hope ALPA doesn't become the kiss of death for WestJet that it was for Canada's former second largest airlines, Canada 3000. 

Although difficult, divorcing a union is possible if it doesn't serve the needs of the people. Good luck to WestJet people.

Union reps (some) are not immune to becoming divorced from realities but of course neither are some non elected executives with the "lets get bigger" gleam in their eyes. ?

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2 hours ago, MD2 said:

At any rate, I hope ALPA doesn't become the kiss of death for WestJet that it was for Canada's former second largest airlines, Canada 3000. 

Although difficult, divorcing a union is possible if it doesn't serve the needs of the people. Good luck to WestJet people.

You really think that ALPA was the reason Canada 3000 shut down?  Even the most anti-union types can't be that naive, or they certainly don't know their history.  

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20 minutes ago, ng78 said:

You really think that ALPA was the reason Canada 3000 shut down?  Even the most anti-union types can't be that naive, or they certainly don't know their history.  

No I don't, it just coincided with it, and to that coincidence is what I was referring. And there are other similarities which I hope do not come to pass for WestJet. And to be fair, at the end ALPA was more cooperative than other unions. I have no reason to believe that the demise of Canada 3000 was any different as analyzed by the Competition Bureau.

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2 hours ago, Super 80 said:

That is going to be interesting... I question how many people who have the seniority to have survived are going to willing to go Encore unless they owe a lot of alimony.

That arrangement is interesting in that it had different motivations, benefits and pitfalls for the three parties involved.

Encore pilots were clearly motivated to advance their career prospects by potentially leap frogging other direct hires for upgrades at WestJet. Their pitfall is their suppressed bargaining powers for improving work conditions. As well the downward pressure on their members now from the displaced pilots.

WJ pilots were enticed by a bonus or perhaps some genuinely trying to help the company. They may have also thought it discourages the company to lay off large numbers, although that remains to be seen. The pitfall for them is a seniority system out of step with experience of its current members which may prove demoralizing for some.

WJ management was largely motivated to address its recruitment challenges at the regional level. Its pitfall is now the challenge of shuffling during a downturn. It will be interesting to see how this will play out and what lessons it brings.

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It isn't without precedent, Aloha's most senior pilots bumped the 737-200C cargo pilots when Aloha was collapsing. Of course the same Aloha pilots then bailed to Hawaiian or the mainland at the first opportunity after pushing out the cargo pilots.

If WestJet decides this is a short-term phenomenon I wouldn't be surprised to see them just ground the Q400 rather than force their most senior captains to go through a DHC-8 course.

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I doubt the downturn would affect their "senior" captains who are on the B787 and likely left alone if they hope to reignite their aspirations any time soon. This will likely trigger major reshuffling of crew bases and positions which will be expensive for the company and messy for the pilots. My guess is that all posturing will come to naught and the pilot group will have no choice but to follow the example of other airlines for reduced hours. The company makes some savings in that and other staff too who are put on CEWS.

Of course WestJet group will need all the help they can get on the other side as they will be in for some tough competition from a known player who no doubt is securing very agreeable terms and will sprint into action just in time. The release of the new Max may just coincide with the initial stages of a recovery. Talk about good timing!

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4 hours ago, Super 80 said:

 

If WestJet decides this is a short-term phenomenon I wouldn't be surprised to see them just ground the Q400 rather than force their most senior captains to go through a DHC-8 course.

Force? Seems to me that $$$$ talks and it woud be expensive for WestJet to have their most senior Captains go through a DHC 8 course. I can not see why the pilots would object with getting the training. 

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Curious, are the passengers on this flight subject to the new Mask Rule and if not, why not?

n addition, WestJet is keeping critical economic lifelines open in Canada through continued operations to all the cities it currently serves with decreased frequency.

Next scheduled repatriation flight:

  • April 23, 2020 from Guatemala City, Guatamala (GUA) to Toronto (YYZ)
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1 hour ago, Marshall said:

THEN THIS COULD BE INTERESTING TO FOLLOW.

Why would THIS in particular be more interesting than the multitude of flights that Air Canada has been doing all along, including to Europe, the epicenter of the pandemic!

Although it is good that government agencies have finally understood scientific data or perhaps were simply buying time before to purchase masks from China, quite ironic!

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2 hours ago, Marshall said:

Curious, are the passengers on this flight subject to the new Mask Rule and if not, why not?

AC has been operating sections to bring agricultural workers to Canada for seasonal employment.  On such flights, at least from Mexico, before boarding pax had been provided (by whom I'm not sure) with hand sanitizer and with masks to wear while on board other than while eating and drinking.  In my experience they were happy to make use of them.

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