Aeroflot777 From Russia, joined Mar 2004, 2958 posts, RR: 30 Posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 2624 times:
I was lurking around the SFO website, and noticed the WestJet no longer operates into SFO. Now, what caused them to pull out? Low demand?
Any help is appreciated.
CanadianNorth From Canada, joined Aug 2002, 3371 posts, RR: 10 Reply 2, posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 2564 times:
Quoting Cgagn (Reply 1): Use it or lose it! That's the Westjet idea and it's working well for them. I'd be willing to bet the loads just weren't there.
Ill put my 2 cents on that aswell. With airlines such as Westjet it's ussually down to they'll try a new city and if it does alright then its a keeper, if it does really well then they'll start adding to it, and if it doesn't do that great then they'll drop the route and use the planes somewhere else.
Planenutz From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 1267 posts, RR: 11 Reply 3, posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 2526 times:
In my opnion, WestJets ops at SFO weren't all that great. Their flights to YYC weren't daily, and oftentimes their fares were much, much higher than UA and AC non stops, and AS's SEA connection. This I never quite understood. My company would always route me thru SEA on AS for a fare up to US$250 less than WestJet.
Accargo From Canada, joined Sep 2004, 610 posts, RR: 8 Reply 4, posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 2418 times:
Aside from leisure (snowbird) markets WS's transborder expansion strategy has not been very successful. Little brand recognition in the US and poor frequencies did little to ensure their continuation. WS folks will, of course dispute all this. .
YOW From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 2400 times:
Another problem with WS to SFO is that they tried to compete on routes where the market was already saturated, namely YYZ and YYC. Had they tried city pairs with little to no nonstop competition, they'd probably still be @ SFO.
Laxintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22241 posts, RR: 51 Reply 6, posted (7 years 4 months 2 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 2365 times:
Westjet certainly has had a fickle record in California scheduled services.
Los Angeles service also has not feared well either. Westjet began with multiple daily flights from Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. The Toronto service ended only months after it began, Vancouver was pulled later as it seemed Westjet was tired with competing against others including HMY. LAX is now left with 6 day per week Calgary service.
From the surface it seems Westjet as mentioned in previous post is unwilling to stick in a market and let it develop. Its not very realistic to expect a market to perform from the first day especially as the carrier has no name recognition, nor much advertising in California.
The only destination that appears to be doing alright are the flights to Palm Springs, however these are primarily designed for the Canadian snow birds and have been successfully operated by prior airlines also such as Canada3000.
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
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