Canadian WestJet Shows Strong Growth Despite Higher Fuel Costs

WestJet wing leaving Maui. Photo courtesy of WestJet.

By Sonia Isotov

Canadian airline Westjet marks the beginning of the summer tourism season with double-digit growth last month in both overall load factor and traffic over the same period last year.

“The Vancouver to Kahului route continues to be strong, as do all of our flights to Hawaii. We just completed our second year of seasonal non-stop service from Edmonton and Calgary to Kahului and it went extremely well. The love affair between western Canadians and Hawaii is still going strong!” Robert Palmer, manager of public relations at Westjet, told us.

Last week, Westjet reported that their overall load factor was 83.6 percent and traffic increased 11.8 percent over last year same time period. Additionally available seat miles grew 12.3 percent as well.

“We are very happy with the double-digit traffic growth and this month’s load factor, which is our second highest April ever,” commented WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky. “We are optimistic that demand for air travel will remain strong and the market will continue to absorb the fare levels necessary to offset elevated fuel costs.”

Leading into the Easter weekend, WestJet set a new single-day record for the airline by flying more than 51,000 guests on April 21, 2011. “Demand has kept pace with our capacity growth so far this year,” said Gregg Saretsky.