NewAir
 

Ex WestJet folks at it again.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/serv...y/robNews/home

History has proven, Canada cannot support 3 domestic scheduled carriers.

(I'm not counting regionals like Porter or Tier 3 feeders).
Worth noting that Canjet in its retreat did not return to its Eastern regional roots.

This looks a lot more like the Allegiant model, eying leisure destinations from smaller airports, often with less than daily service. I'd say it's chances are iffy, but it makes more sense than going head to head with WS and AC. A strong dollar is definitely to their advantage, but a repeat of Sept 11, 2001 that impacts the will of leisure travellers to travel would be deadly.

As we're likely looking for a new home for this thread, would people prefer it move to Canada or Other N/S America Airlines forum?

I'm guessing Canada, correct?

stp

I'd vote for Canada as well.

I think they have identified areas in the Canadian market that are underserved, but whether they can find a way to serve these markets and make money is another thing altogether. Air Canada seems incapable of properly serving cities like YQR (I will cite that city as I fly out there), with good loads on most western Can. service, and terrible schedules (YYC service--a 60 minute hop at most--is so bad that an easy business day return is hard to do--way early departure and a 16:15 return, or a much much later return). WJ fills its planes out of here too, despite carrying much more capacity. There is room for more flights and better scheds., and it is a shame that neither will add capacity. I am sure that there are many other markets like this.

WJ did try to bring in overnight Las Vegas flights for this winter to YQR and YXE but the feds would not provide enough customs and immigration agents to handle the numbers of passengers, so I am not sure how a new airline will get around issues like that. Delta is bringing in a Salt Lake City service next year, so there is some expansion happening. I would prefer it if either WJ or AC did the expanding, however.

I agree that we do not need a third national carrier. What we do need (from the standpoint of competition in smaller centres) is for WJ to step up and push AC a bit more. They need to get into an airline alliance and start acting like a proper carrier and not like an LCC (which they are not in any case).