Guest M. McRae Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Appears that only one 737 was offered to Westjet and not the entire fleet as reported earlier this week. Who to believe???? Zip aircraft fleet not for sale, CEO of discounter says Will survive CCAA: Smith: Disputes rival WestJet's claims planes on market Claudia Cattaneo, Calgary Bureau Chief - Financial Post Saturday, April 19, 2003 CALGARY - Stephen Smith, the chief executive of Air Canada's Zip subsidiary, said his aircraft lessors have promised their full co-operation through the bankruptcy protection proceedings of its parent and accused his rival and former boss at WestJet Airlines Ltd. of making "irresponsible" statements about his fleet. "We have been in contact with all of our lessors and they have indicated they are all willing to work with us through the CCAA process," Mr. Smith said on Thursday. "I am bothered by what I consider to be irresponsible, unprofessional and incorrect remarks." Mr. Smith was reacting to a statement made by Clive Beddoe, chief executive of WestJet, this week that an Air Canada aircraft lessor has offered to sell him the entire fleet of Zip, suggesting Zip's future is up in the air. Mr. Beddoe said the offer was made recently and was not part of Air Canada's court-supervised reorganization under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. "One of their lessors offered to sell us ... their airplanes," Mr. Beddoe said. "So how much confidence can you have in what Zip is going to be?" Siobhan Vinish, a spokeswoman for WestJet, said on Thursday Mr. Beddoe stands by those remarks. Mr. Smith said Zip's fleet of 11 Boeing 737-200 is, in fact, leased from five companies and he's aware of only one of them having held talks with Westjet. He said the lessor offered one aircraft to his competitor -- but only if Air Canada doesn't want it any more. "That is a different thing than saying, 'Do you want to buy the Zip fleet?' " Mr. Smith said. He said Zip plans to increase its fleet to 20 aircraft by the fall as part of an ambitious growth strategy that has been very successful and consistent. "It's been onwards and upwards," Mr. Smith said. The two leaders have a history of discord. Mr. Smith was WestJet's chief executive for 18 months until Mr. Beddoe, who co-founded WestJet, fired him three years ago. At the time, the straight-talking Mr. Beddoe said he let go Mr. Smith to head off a revolt by his management team. He said he was greeted with "high fives, hugs and hurrahs and hurrays from everybody" when he walked back into WestJet's executive offices to take over Mr. Smith's responsibilities. Mr. Smith said there's no certainty about what Air Canada's fleet will look like when it comes out of bankruptcy protection. Mr. Smith said Mr. Beddoe has repeatedly made misleading statements about Zip. He said WestJet is "very concerned" about competition from his team, as demonstrated by the fact WestJet is placing some of its uniformed staff in Zip's departure area to count passengers. Calgary-based Zip is part of Air Canada's strategy to capitalize on the demand for discount tickets, which now make up two-thirds of all airline tickets purchased in Canada. Air Canada sees Zip as a way of shifting flights it operates to another carrier with much lower costs so it can compete with such carriers as WestJet. Most of Zip's aircraft were operated by Canadian Airlines and taken over by Air Canada when the two merged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicoChico Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Mr. Beddoe stands by those remarks. Looks like Clive's loose lips are going to bite him on this one.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest acfaywg Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 This should affect Clive in a negative way unfortunatly.... Hope for the employees sake that they will be able to still have a managment team with the truth behiond them and not some loose lip lier! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest M. McRae Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Of course this is a classic - He says, She says, they say and I guess we have to decide who to believe. AC did state at the start of CCAA that their filing covered all AC companies and that they were going to get rid of the 747s, 737s and 146s. Unless they have given the wink to those who own the 737s, I can see them trying to flog them. There are lots of 200s in the world and under EU laws, they can not fly in the EU even though they are hushkitted (had to be registered in the EU prior to 2001 or was it 2000). I don't however know if anyone broker can negotiate on behalf of all the owners so the "one of" could be the truth. Anyway I am sure the truth will out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest M. McRae Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Of course this is a classic - He says, She says, they say and I guess we have to decide who to believe. AC did state at the start of CCAA that their filing covered all AC companies and that they were going to get rid of the 747s, 737s and 146s. Unless they have given the wink to those who own the 737s, I can see them trying to flog them. There are lots of 200s in the world and under EU laws, they can not fly in the EU even though they are hushkitted (had to be registered in the EU prior to 2001 or was it 2000). I don't however know if any one broker can negotiate on behalf of all the owners so the "one of" could be the truth. Anyway I am sure the truth will out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lowtime Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Good point ! We need some strong mgt like at AC and maybe we could split the hourly rate of a good bankrupt. lawyer ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Toron1 Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 "you go girl" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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