Westjet eliminates fuel surcharge
 

The $20-45 surcharge is history ^ (for now) . I'm sure this will spark some lively debate.

http://c3dsp.westjet.com/guest/spare2.jsp

Good good. Air Canada has only moved to include the fuel surcharge in their fares.:rolleyes:

I’ve done a few comparisons of pricing WJ vs AC. I picked an outbound and return date a little over a month away (to ensure availability) with outbound on weekday and return on weekend. The dates I chose were October 22 and October 25. I chose 3 different routes YEG-YYC, YEG-YVR and YEG-YYZ. The results below are for the cheapest fares available for the various flight options.

YEG-YYC:

Outbound – AC and WJ both had almost all $75 seats with a few $95 seats.

Return – AC and WJ had all seats for $85.


YEG-YVR

WJ – Almost all seats were $125 with 2 options for $119
AC – All seats were $125

WJ – Equal mix of $119 and $145 seats
AC – Some $129 with mostly $145 seats


YEG-YYZ

WJ – Mix of $139, $159, $169, and $199 seats (most were $199)
AC – Mix of $94, $159, $199, $239 and one $384 seat (most were $199)

WJ – Mix of $149, $159, $169, and $219 seats
AC – Mix of $104, $159, and $229 seats


Overall, it looked as if the cheapest fares for each airline were fairly equal. The majority of the fares were identical, with a few exceptions for the highest/lowest charged by each airline. Judging by the above, it appears that while WJ claims that they no longer have a surcharge, they actually increased their base fare by approximately the same amount as the surcharges they eliminated.

Which is exactly what I would have expected.

The only advantage is to those getting award tickets (AirMiles, Avion, etc) that won't have to pay the surcharge as an add-on, if they've really got rid of the surcharge instead of converting it to a hidden surcharge like AC.

Well then with fares being equal, the only choice is to fly with the airline that makes you feel like they are happy to have you on their planes or the one that makes you feel like you are inconveniencing them.

I know who I choose everytime.

The YEG - YYC comparison can be misleading
 

The YEG - YYC comparison can be misleading as WS does the route in 100% jet aircraft, AC is mostly those older, slower, and generally crappy flight DASH8 turbo props. Eliminate the DASH8 flights, and just compare WS jet flights YEG - YYC to AC Jet flights and you may find that there is indeed a lower price advantage to WS for that route.

WestJet expects 30% drop in fuel costs, but fares won't budge
 

I found this 7-year old thread and soon realized how times have changed.....

WestJet Airlines Ltd expects 30% drop in fuel costs, but fares won’t budge

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Kristine Owram | February 3, 2015 | Last Updated: Feb 4 1:02 PM ET
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WestJet says it won't lower fare prices to pass on savings from a drop in fuel costs.
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WestJet Airlines Ltd. expects its fuel costs to fall by as much as 30% in the first quarter but travellers won’t see a penny of that unless the airline experiences a sudden drop in demand, executives said Tuesday.

WestJet Airlines flies in the face of plunging oil prices with new destinations

Despite the sharp fall in oil prices, WestJet Airlines Ltd. is still counting on energy sector workers to fill its seats. The Calgary-based airline announced recently the addition of two oil hotspots to its flight schedule. Keep reading.
“Our plan is not to pass any of it on,” WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky told reporters Tuesday when asked if the company would lower fares as a result of falling fuel costs. “We price according to supply and demand.”

So far, demand remains strong, with WestJet reporting a load factor of 79.7% in the fourth quarter and 81.4% for 2014. As long as approximately 80% of the seats on WestJet’s planes are filled, there’s no reason to drop fares, Mr. Saretsky said.

“We have fare sales from time to time and we will continue to use fare sales … but we’re not planning to lower the entire fare structure,” he said.

WestJet said Tuesday it expects to pay an average of $0.63 to $0.65 per litre for fuel in the first quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 30% at the high end, thanks to the recent plunge in oil prices. (Oil prices have been creeping up in the past few days, but not enough to cause significant impact in the first quarter.)

But analysts have cautioned that falling crude prices aren’t all good news for WestJet, since the Calgary-based airline is disproportionately exposed to the Alberta market.

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Mr. Saretsky disputed that Tuesday, arguing that WestJet’s domestic exposure to Alberta is similar to that of Air Canada.

“I wouldn’t say we’re any more exposed than any other operator,” he said. “We do have a national footprint and a large southern footprint as well.”

However, this doesn’t take into account Air Canada’s large international operations, which would water down the impact of a potential recession in Alberta, said Cormark Securities Inc. analyst David Newman.

“WestJet would feel more of a disproportionate impact coming out of Alberta than Air Canada, which can dilute their franchise with business markets, transborder, Atlantic, Pacific and so on,” Mr. Newman said in an interview.

If the Albertan economy does weaken significantly, Mr. Newman said WestJet has one of two choices: reduce capacity or cut prices.

WestJet said Tuesday it expects domestic capacity growth of 4% to 5% in 2015.

“I wish it had come down a couple points,” Mr. Newman said of the capacity growth forecast. “It would have been a nice message to the market that they’re being prudent in light of what’s going on in Alberta and in light of the currency right now.”

WestJet is also facing potential weakness in its international operations, which are largely focused on sun destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico, where demand isn’t keeping up with growth in airline capacity. Air Canada’s new discount carrier, Rouge, flies to many of the same sun destinations as WestJet and is one of the reasons for the double-digit capacity increases the region has seen.

“The amount of overall capacity in that region is putting a little bit of margin pressure on us this year,” Mr. Saretsky said, adding that he’s not worried about demand despite the weaker Canadian dollar.

“Canadians will give up a lot, but not a trip to the sun.”

On Tuesday, the airline boosted its quarterly dividend by 17% to $0.14 a share. Fourth-quarter profit came in at $90.7 million, or $0.70 per share, up 33.8% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.3% to $994.4 million while yield — a measurement of the revenue generated per passenger per mile flown — rose 0.7% to 19.57 cents.

I guess the demand for flights are still too high for them to need to drop the price of tickets. They have no incentive to drop the airline tickets at the moment.

Though maybe if one airline would do it first, it will push for some competition.