Originally Posted by
TravellingChris
It's WestJet-speak for "We've given up on competing with Air Canada or on becoming a successful version of Canadian Airlines and are retreating to our own niche."
This is their way of explaining the retreat from domestic service within Eastern Canada, the continued refusal to join an international alliance and the lack of a useful frequent flyer program: 'What do you expect? We're a leisure carrier.' In other words, lower your expectations.
"Canada's leading leisure carrier" is also not a high bar to hit when WestJet has taken over one of its key rivals for the title and is merging it out of existence.
Why would WestJet want to directly compete with Air Canada just for the sake of it? There is no need to follow in the problematic footsteps of Canadian Airlines. They are bigger in revenue (based on inflation adjustment from 1999 to 2019) and passenger-miles flown than Canadian ever was and certainly have been more profitable over the years than Canadian could ever have dreamed of.
The most consistently profitable airline in the world based on % margin is Ryanair, I don’t see much business travel focus there. They are in business to make a profit, not provide a loss-leading public service or be a “me too” to any other airline, probably the biggest mistake Canadian made overall.