New WestJet schedule flying larger aircraft, less flights
By Lethbridge Herald on October 3, 2024.
WestJet has already begun its planned schedule changes to and from the Lethbridge Airport.
Herald photos by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Starting this month residents will see a reduction in flights to and from Lethbridge with only one departing flight in the morning and one incoming flight at night daily, but in a bigger airplane.
With WestJet transitioning services to WestJet Encore this month, Jared Mikoch-Gerke, director of alliances and airport affairs with WestJet met with city officials, community partners and various organizations representatives to discuss the changes.
After the round-table discussion with the interested parties, Mikoch-Gerke spoke to reporters about what the change means for those flying through the Lethbridge airport.
“We’ve got a schedule change. It started a little bit early as of Oct. 1, but the intended changes are actually for Oct. 27, when we’re moving from our capacity purchase agreement with Pacific Coastal over to our regional aircraft with WestJet Encore,” said Mikoch-Gerke
He said that even though the schedule is not as frequent, it offers optimal connectivity to basically anywhere within their expansive network from Calgary.
“I know that the frequency is less and that’s the first thing that everybody sees, but in terms of capacity, when we talk about seats, it’s not a really significant reduction because we’re going from an aircraft that was 34 seats to an aircraft that 78,” said Mikoch-Gerke
He said that something they have heard the most from the community about their service in Lethbridge since 2018 are concerns around the reliability of it and the inconsistency, having frequent cancellations.
“One of the biggest reasons that we’re moving onto a larger aircraft, is because we are more confident that we can deliver a schedule more reliably for the community of Lethbridge,” said
In terms of what they are doing to persuade people to fly out of Lethbridge instead of driving up to Calgary, Mikoch-Gerke said they have introduced a new product called Ultra Basic which allows them to sell some fares at a cheaper rate than normal.
“We’ve got some really cheap fares in the market right now for $79 and if you look at what the average fare was between Lethbridge and Calgary over the last 12 months it was $109, so we’re $30 cheaper than we historically have been,” said Mikoch-Gerke
When talking about the long-term plans for WestJet in Lethbridge, Mikoch-Gerke said they will be monitoring the situation and if they have an increase in demand, they will revisit the idea of increasing the frequency of flights, but in the mean time Lethbridge will have one departing flight in the morning and one arriving at night.
“The flight is going to leave here at 7 a.m. and it’s going to arrive at about 7:40 into Calgary. Our largest morning connection bank runs between about 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 or 11 a.m.,” said Mikoch-Gerke.
And for return flights into Lethbridge, he said that because they have a large connection bank into Calgary that arrives between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. the flight will depart Calgary at 11:40 p.m. to arrive in Lethbridge just after midnight.
Mikoch-Gerke said this year to date they have had 66,000 seats available for Lethbridge flights and 35,000 travellers have filled them.
Mayor Blaine Hyggen also spoke to reporters about the change and said it was actually a positive thing despite the reduction in flights.
“There are positive reasons for this change. I know a lot of people are going to say, ‘Oh my goodness, like are you kidding me?’ But we’ve been promised that this is going to be monitored,” said Hyggen.
He said this shows there will be an opportunity to increase airport traffic in the future and this is not an impediment when it comes to attracting people and businesses to the city.
“We want to sell Lethbridge as a destination and Tourism Lethbridge does a great job in that. A big part of it is airline travel to get here, but it’s only two hours away from Calgary, so we want to make sure people know it’s not a struggle to get down to Lethbridge,” said Hyggen.
20-19
Lol the Lethbridge Airport dumped alllllll that money into renovations, just to have one WJ flight a day offered at a trash time.
This is probably the beginning of the end of ANY commercial flights to or from YQL (Lethbridge). Sure, Westjet will attempt to dazzle with low “introductory” fares under $100.00, but just wait….Just like Flix Bus entered the Lethbridge-Calgary market this summer, with fares of less than $5.00. Now, their fares are just under $100.00 exactly the same as Red Arrow.
*(NOTE, the current fare for a Westjet flight from Lethbridge to Calgary is $352.00). Is there any promise that these rates (or higher) will not soon resume after the initial, introductory fares?
Here are some concerns with this whole senario:
1- Lethbridge will have Westjet service one flight in and one flight out per day, and at a most unappropiate mid-day schedule.
2- The City (our tax dollars) will continue staffing the airport (according to their news release) with no staff reductions, citing “air evacts” and “flight school”…..both of these entities are not reliant on the airport facility per se…. furthermore, the medical evacs are nominal and few and far between, the flight school operates out of a separate building then the instant airport terminal.
3- The City (like Lethbridge County, previous operators of the airport) need to dump this “white elephant” money pit now, before we are in another money loosing operation (exhibition building) situation!
4- “Larger aircraft”? Why? Statistics indicate that even the current flights are rarely no where near capacity….and if there are minimal passengers, guess what, Westjet cancels the flight(s) citing some bogus reason.
Call your Council Members/Mayor now!
Simply check the Westjet booking site, contrary to what Westjet is telling us “The flight is going to leave here at 7 a.m. and it’s going to arrive at about 7:40 into Calgary. Our largest morning connection bank runs between about 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 or 11 a.m.,” said Mikoch-Gerke.” Actually, there is only ONE mid-day (3:00PM) flight to Calgary daily and this will obviously miss most connections.
I write this from eastern Canada , we drove to Calgary and flew from there, why ? Because we’re not idiots . Whenever there is a problem , it’s always with the Lethbridge leg of the trip . Either you get there so early , you could have saved money by driving , or your flight is delayed and you are stranded in YYC. Also , adding Lethbridge sometimes adds $300 to your flight. Now with fewer flight options , it will be even worse . Drive to Calgary, always a better option.
As someone who follows airline industry trends, I find WestJet’s changes in Lethbridge quite intriguing. While it may work well for business travelers, it could limit options for leisure passengers or those with less flexible schedules. This reminds me of similar strategies I’ve seen implemented by other airlines, like avianca email, which has also been optimizing its network in recent years. It’s a challenging balancing act between profitability and meeting diverse passenger needs.
In this case, would you not agree that Westjet is concerned/actioning only one aspect? PROFIT! Westjet is clearly not concerned with providing options to passengers rather than with that fitting their own schedule.
An enterprising bus service with direct -non stop- destination from and to the Calgary airport may consider this viable. Think about it, not having to go through pesky “air port” security in Lethbridge, having to park your vehicle at cost at the airport, or taking a taxi or relying on friends/family to drop you off, no need to risk your luggage being delayed or lost.
Realize your expended time taking a Westjet flight to Calgary…. 20 minute drive to the airport, check in 1 hour prior to flight, 45 flight time, 30 minutes at terminal exiting and obtaining luggage (minimal) total: 2hrs. 35 minutes! This is optimal time, not taking into account frequent delays taking off and/or on the tarmac after landing in Calgary.
A direct bus trip could take less than 2-1/2 hours. Currently a Red Arrow/Flix Bus trip to Calgary is well under $100.00.
Beware Westjet, you may loose your paasenger patronage and your profit margin you are expecting from your schedule change.