Hello, and welcome back to another exciting edition of “Airline Soap Opera Theater”! Where we last left off, low cost carriers Southwest and WestJet were preparing to consummate their cross-border relationship, but it kept getting delayed when Southwest’s work on the IT side of things took longer than expected. And then, WestJet’s new CEO said in an interview that they were interested in a partnership with Delta.
Not surprisingly, on Friday Southwest announced that it would be ending its partnership with WestJet – before the two carriers even started exchanging passengers. Southwest says that WestJet requested “a number of changes” in the agreement, and has decided that having each airline go its own was a better idea. While we won’t know for sure, my guess is that Southwest wanted to be WestJet’s sole American partner, and WestJet started to not like that idea.
Of course, in my book, it’s not the news that is the most interesting, but what each airline will go on to do.
First, let’s look at WestJet. If a partnership with Delta actually develops that makes them even closer to SkyTeam (a partnership with AF-KLM already exists). It’d be interesting to see if they end up joining the alliance, as that’d be a first for an LCC. But it would make sense for SkyTeam – with Air Canada already tied up in Star WestJet is really the only other viable option to play ball in Canada.
Another interesting aspect of a Delta-WestJet partnership is the slot swap, an item that Southwest recently brought up in a filing regarding the compromise suggested by US Airways and Delta. Under the FAA’s proposed ruling, the airlines shouldn’t give up slots to codeshare partners. So, if Delta and WestJet were to codeshare, would that put WestJet’s possible YYZ-LGA flights in further jeopardy? I think we might have to wait on the DOT for that one.
And what about Southwest? The company’s EVP of Strategy and Planning, Bob Jordan, remarked that “we remain interested in exploring the possibility of one day offering service to Canada if it makes sense for Southwest and for our Customers. That would not rule out future codeshare relationships with Canadian carriers, or flying north of the border ourselves.”
It would certainly be interesting if Southwest were to go it alone here, but I’m not sure how interested they would be – I don’t think that any potential Canadian stations could really generate the frequency that they usually like to have. Plus, when the WestJet deal was first announced Southwest was very clear that they didn’t want their own metal touching Canadian soil – WestJet would take care of all the operations. That being said, maybe Southwest learned a thing or two about the Canadian market as it got the codeshare ready.
And what about Canadian partners? The only airline really left here is Porter. It would only take care of the Eastern half of Canada but it would be at least something. And it would make sense, I think. Porter’s range is limited thanks to the very short runway at its Toronto base – and a codeshare with Southwest could really open some opportunities to the West. Porter already flies to Midway and from my experience it is a pretty easy airport to have a connection – and it would become even easier once Billy Bishop Airport, Porter’s base, has pre-clearance facilities, it will become even easier.
As always – we’ll have to see.
The first half of the video really wasn’t Florida One – it was just Boeing stock footage. As you can see here, the fuselage in the center of the frame can’t be Florida One – that’s a 737-800, and based on the winglet it’s bound for Virgin Blue.
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