I think a lot of Western Canadians take a perverse pride in WestJet. It started out as a Western Canadian airline. It was several years before the airline even offered flights to and from Toronto. Westerners saw this as almost as "sticking it to the man," and "we don't need the centre of the universe to survive."
WestJet was modelled on the highly successful Southwest Airlines. Its barebones approach has made it one of the most successful airlines on the continent, surviving recessions when others were in bankruptcy court. Southwest's approach was KISS; keep it simple, stupid. The entire airline operated only one model of airplane - the Boeing 737. This meant that they only needed one set of spare parts and mechanics that specialized in only one aircraft. One class of seating meant you didn't have empty first class seats because no one wanted to pay the extra fare. One class also means everyone is treated the same, which makes the passengers feel a little happier because they don't look up to the people at the front of the plane and realize they are being treated like second class citizens in the back.
With its new president, Gregg Saretsky, the company has started to fall away from its roots. According to a March 23 article in the Financial Post, the airline is going to bring in a second class of seating - "premium economy." It will have the same newly designed seats as the poor slobs in the back, but they will have four to five more inches of space between them than those in the economy class. They accomplish this by squeezing the economy seats two to three inches closer together. This is being done by making all the seats substantially thinner, which is sure to be noticed by backsides.
The company is also launching a regional airline, WestJet Encore, with a second aircraft, 20 new Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s. This will allow service to smaller centres, but also takes away from the "only one plane" model that has served the airline so well in the past. While service to places like Fort St. John will be welcome, one worries about how the changes will bode for WestJet overall. We've been so proud of this Western Canadian based airline, we'd hate to see it become another Air Canada (which has multiple classes, multiple aircraft, and a hard time keeping out of bankruptcy court).
What's most bothersome in my eyes is the change to multiple classes in WestJet aircraft. I don't think the introduction of segregation of classes is worth the loss of esprit de corps among its passengers. WestJet customers, on the whole, tend to love this airline. For those that don't love it, generally they hate it a lot less than they hate Air Canada. Why start giving them reasons to lessen the love?
As for the trend of packing more people into an airplane, someone needs to tell airlines that Canadians as a whole are getting fatter, not thinner. A whole lot fatter would be more like it. For every person who looks good in Lululemon yoga pants, you probably have three or more who can barely wedge their butts into the seats.
Instead of cramming us like sardines into their flying tin cans, it sure would be nice if airlines gave us a little more space instead. That comes at the expense of higher ticket prices, which no one wants to pay, however.
I wonder what's next? Maybe they'll remove the seats entirely and stack us like cord wood?
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net
