The OTP 5 years ago was about 10% worse than now, for the past year WestJet has averaged 76.4% A15 (arrival within 15 mins of schedule, based on FlightStats data), Air Canada has averaged 68.0%. The disruption of almost 900 guests for holding an aircraft for 20 mins when OTP was in the sixties is not something that is likely to happen now because of this disruption and why the company has concentrated on departing on time, especially with head-start flights. WestJet though for 2017 managed an average daily utilization of 11.2 hours with an average of 4.07 turns per aircraft per day, compared with 10.4 hours and 3.95 turns per day for Air Canada, so better utilization and better OTP by WestJet.

The 0.8 hour utilization difference is worth about 2% lower CASM for the same aircraft operated in the same way, a significant portion of profit. This means WestJet has a more effective turn capability for the OTP performance it achieves, padding the turn times is not the answer, driving for OTP is more effective, especially from a cost competitiveness perspective.