I’m expecting WJ to steady the ship, so to speak, and I don’t see them disappearing any time soon but I maintain the possibility of shutting down is not impossible.
My sense is they’re entering or have already found themselves in financial turbulence. Their strongest market, Alberta has fallen on hard times and the WJ passenger market has fallen by over 40% as a result. Not good.
Wardair switched from charter airline to scheduled airline almost over night. They needed feeder traffic too because Time Air and Air Nova had already partnered up so it meant buying MD88s and F100s to provide that feeder traffic. Lots of hiring ($$$).
Lots of new planes ($$$)
Lots of pilot training ($$$)
Increased maintenance costs ($$$)
Increased fuel costs($$$)
Increased airport fees ($$$)
..I could go on.
Where is Wardair today?
My sense is that Westjet have just entered a similar phase at a time when Canadian oil is all but off the market, fuel prices are on the rise. Load factors on the decrease. Not at all encouraging.
51 quarters of profit, yes. But the reality is, those quarterly profits are down. Significantly. Most recently, down by almost half compared to the same period last year. How can that be positive.
I think I’ll wait and see how things go. Swoop or no Swoop.
Willie
