Originally Posted by
YEG Guy
This schedule for certain does not give AC a run for their money.
Lets look by schedule implementation date:
YYC-YXJ/YCD; No current AC service. No yield impact to AC.
YVR-YXJ: Current AC service so this is one small market where WS has new opportunities to compete.
YVR-YYJ, first flight into YVR and last flight out to YYJ does not compare well to AC 12+ daily flights.
YYC-YQR/YXE; all ready has westjet price affected. Also WS is the dominant airline on this route so any price cutting will only cannabalize WS yield much more than AC.
YYC-YQU: Again thus route is all ready served by WS with existing service through YEG. Again WS will not undercut their own yield.
YYC-YEG: is the only route where WS could be seen as putting the boots to AC. However this is also the route where WS is decreasing the most seats as 4/9 flts get downguaged to the Q400. Unitl WS gets to 12 daily flts or better on this route I do not expect any price relief.
I disagree!
In all new markets, both non-stop and connecting, there will be a big impact on yields and pricing! That alone will cause all kinds of grief to competitors just as it did when Westjet expanded one aircraft at a time in its early days.
YYC-YXJ - Makes YYC a far more convenient gateway to all points east of Calgary and even Edmonton. Why fly southwest to Vancouver for 90 minutes when you want to go to Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, the maritimes or even the Caribbean?
YVR-YXJ – Other airlines have the frequency, but that’s nothing WJ hasn’t had to deal with before! They started with 2x daily YYC-YVR when AC and CP combined had 30+ a day! All it takes is one “discount” flight a day to turn a route flare structure upside down. We’ve all seen that before!
YCD-YYC - Makes YYC a far more convenient gateway to all points east of Calgary and even Edmonton. This will impact YVR-YCD just as YQQ-YYC changed YQQ-YVR’s situation a decade ago. YCD-YYC is currently $5 more than YCD-YVR!
YVR-YYJ – Having an early morning YYJ-YVR allows WJ the ability to start selling YYJ to all the YVR transborder and international destinations that depart YVR after about 9:30am. Other than a weekly YYJ-HNL flight, WJ has never really seriously competed in the winter Southern Vancouver Island to Hawaii market. It also gives YYJ more convenient access to places like LAX, SFO, PSP, PHX and LAS as all that now flows over Calgary and especially for the California coast markets is not a very good product.
Add this all up, and with just 2 airplanes, I see a great deal of impact in the market!
With an aircraft a month for a couple of years and I see this as cumulatively having as much impact on regional flying in Canada as WJ had on the industry over its first 5 years, but, like WJ, it won’t / can’t happen overnight! People need to be realistic about their expectations! Rome was not built in a day!
