What's old is new again at WestJet, as the airline seeks to "embrace what made us so successful in the past."
Those were the words of Chuck Crowder, VP Sales, Distribution, Contact Centre and WestJet Vacations, to an audience of hundreds of travel agents at the first WestJet Travel Trade Expo in three years, held at the International Centre near Pearson Airport.
Crowder says the airline has made a decision to "stop trying to be everything to everyone," and focus on "preserving what's good, strengthening competitive advantages and stop doing what doesn't work."
In practical terms, Crowder says the pillars of the new approach include putting a strong focus on its western Canada base, renewing a commitment to lower-cost flying and taking advantage of a surge in leisure travel demand.
"The footprint is shifting out of the east," Crowder said. "But don't think that we're shrinking in this market. We simply couldn't sustain trying to be everything to everybody."
Crowder says this will mean less flying in the Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal triangle and more frequencies between key east and west cities. The airline's fleet of long-range 787s will all be based in Western Canada and the Q400 fleet - which will slowly be replaced by larger aircraft -- will move west as well.
The WestJet executive, who began his career as a travel agent, says there's plenty for central and eastern Canadian travel professionals to be excited about, and more to come as a deal to purchase tour operator and airline Sunwing makes its way through the regulatory process.
"Sunwing is very strong in the east, and the strongest tour operator in Canada. It's also an airline with a fleet of 18 planes, and WestJet brings airline expertise. I believe the deal will be approved without any issues, then the hard work of integration begins. But when we get on the other side of this, it's going to be so spectacular," Crowder said.
The WestJet Travel Trade Expo, which is moving on to Calgary tomorrow and Vancouver on September 15, attracted a substantial number of sun destination hoteliers and tourist boards to its trade show. With leisure sales "at or surpassing 2019 levels," Dave Cecco, Director, WestJet Vacations, says agents should urge their clients to book early for best pricing and availability.
"I'd suggest people lock in now because prices are likely to go up. We're offering instant savings of up to $400 for bookings this month, and our phones are ringing off the hook." WestJet Vacations is also offering an automatic 2% commission bonus for packages booked before September 30.
For winter, WestJet is restarting 17 sun and leisure routes that were halted by the pandemic. WestJet Vacations is offering 850 different properties in 60 destinations. The operator unveiled a 24-page mini-brochure that is rackable and client-facing, but also acts as a product guide for travel advisors. Work continues on a comprehensive digital brochure.
As well as instant savings and instant price match on packages - the only one in the industry, WestJet says - the airline has also extended the validity of 'COVID WestJet dollars' through December 31, as well as extending commission protection through that date.
This winter, Swoop flights will be available from select cities in combination with WestJet Vacations packages to Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, Las Vegas and the Dominican Republic. These packages can only be booked through travel agents, at the same commission level as packages with WestJet flights. "We know there's a clientele out there for that," Crowder said.
The travel agent audience applauded news that WestJet Vacations has added a 'live chat' feature to make it faster and easier to make changes to existing bookings. That's part of an overall focus on digitization and development of self-service tools.
"We were lacking in self-service options and the pandemic revealed this. There were some big hiccups," admitted Manager, Leisure Sales Shannon Cunningham. "Now we're making some real progress."
The WestJet and WestJet Vacations presentation earned a warm response from attendees. Every few minutes, a slide came up that read "WestJet Loves Travel Agents," which meant it was time to draw a prize. Several agents left with tickets for WestJet flights or WestJet Vacations packages.
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