WestJet inks co-operation deal with Southwest Airlines
WestJet 3-month TSX chart
Discount airline WestJet said Tuesday it had signed a distribution and codeshare deal with Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the company that pioneered the model of the low-cost carrier.
The two companies said they plan to have the distribution plan ready this year and the codeshare agreement in place in late 2009.
Shares of WestJet gained more than 11 per cent following the announcement. The stock rose $1.41 to close at $14.10 on the TSX.
Calgary-based WestJet is Southwest's first international partner.
Under codeshare agreements, airlines market seats on each other's routes.
The airlines said Southwest.com will become a distribution channel for WestJet's Canadian and transborder flights. The carriers also see the potential to co-operate on purchasing, ground handling, marketing and corporate sales, they said.
"[The agreement] marks an important step forward for our guests and their ability to fly to more destinations in the United States conveniently and cost effectively," WestJet president and CEO Sean Durfy said.
"When you examine our network in Canada and Southwest's network in the United States, and the potential to significantly improve both organizations' market access, this is indeed a great day."
Separately, WestJet said it flew with a smaller percentage of its seats filled for June and for its second quarter as the company added capacity.
The airline said its load factor — the percentage of available seats occupied by travellers — was 76.5 per cent for June, down from 79.9 per cent for the same month in 2007.
For the second quarter of this year, WestJet's load factor was 79.5 per cent, down 1.4 percentage points from the April-June quarter of last year.
The company said its seat capacity for June rose by 23.1 per cent — WestJet's biggest increase since November 2006.
The airline said it had 86,500 more passengers in June, up eight per cent from the 1.1 million travellers it flew in June 2007.
"In the first six months of the year, we took delivery of five of our seven aircraft slated for 2008," Durfy said. "This represented a significant upfront investment in capacity that will bear fruit for us in the remainder of 2008 and beyond."
On Monday, Air Canada and Jazz Air said their load factor for June was 82.2 per cent, down from 82.8 per cent a year earlier. Passenger traffic was up 1.9 per cent, while capacity was 2.7 per cent higher.
Air Canada recently announced capacity cutbacks and plans to cut 2,000 jobs. Jazz said it will cut its capacity by five per cent and eliminate 270 jobs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment