Originally Posted by
FlyerJ
I’m good with “never say never” … but the OP’s question was “in the near future”.
I’m frankly concerned that the Delta JV won’t even happen now. They’ve gone silent on it … after the first attempt was turned down, and both companies said they’d try again.
That was a holdover from the previous CEO - and the new guy seems to be reversing course on everything the previous CEO did and said. (And a Delta JV doesn’t really fit with a primarily-Western-Canadian-regional-holiday airline anyway.)
Yes of course there will reversals and changes to strategy. Depending on what is required to fix or improve an organizations financial picture from the black swan event of the century. There is always a greater plan or strategy with any corporation and for obvious reasons that just won’t be shared with competitors.
Originally Posted by
FlyerJ
Everything the new CEO has said - including his new, long-term strategic plan for WestJet - has said:
- pull back from the east to focus primarily on the west
- pull back from being all-things-to-all-people, and instead focus on being a leisure/vacation carrier
- drive growth largely through growing point-to-point vacation routes, primarily from western Canada, but also from major eastern Canadian cities
- cancel upcoming 787 deliveries, and instead focus on being a 737 carrier (while keeping the existing 787s)
Every press release, PR piece and speech has been focused on (1) largely retracting to the west and (2) focusing on leisure (not business, not inbound tourism) travel.
While business travel is currently soft and will stay soft in the short term, no other North American airline has made such a strategic shift to focusing on leisure.
The only deviation from what they’ve communicated consistently for the past 6 months has been the recent announcement to build the 787 hub at YYC. But that does make business sense as a way for them to keep their small, existing 787 fleet flying profitably.
Well just because no other airline has does not mean they won’t be looking at it.
an excerpt:
With the latest studies suggesting that up to 40% of business traffic may not return, United’s fleet growth and business market focus will possibly have to be productive with a large increase in price-sensitive leisure travelers. Being the world’s “biggest and best” airline, as CEO Scott Kirby states with this plan, may require that business travelers will all return to be successful. Not even addressing this challenge brings skepticism to the plan. A corollary with this is the fast growth of lower-cost, leisure focused airlines. With the latest IPOs and startups all focused on leisure travelers, it is this segment of the business that is gaining new investment and growing at rates even faster than United plans to grow. How United will maintain a price premium, needed for their high cost structure, is not obvious.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/benbald...h=2098e5181ea7
Last edited by NewbieRunner; Oct 16, 2022 at 8:19 am
Reason: Please use multi-quote feature