WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech posted thoughtful commentary on his LinkedIn page, saying disruptive events let down many guests in 2024, but he says he's proud of a number of achievements made by the Calgary-based airline.
"The last year has been a memorable one," he said on his Linked In page. "One of great successes and one of painful learnings. But mostly, a year that made me proud of our incredible team standing together through thick and thin, and working relentlessly to support our guests and each other."
Among the accomplishments he listed:
- WestJet grew by 8% as it added new travel options, especially in communities that depend on air travel the most
- Their investments made Calgary "the best connected midsized city in North America"
- WS entered new airline partnerships with Condor, Virgin Atlantic, Korean Air and Air North, Yukon's Airline alongside our long standing partners Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and Qantas, providing an extended global network for its guests
- The airline secured the entire fleet of nine Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft formerly operated by Lynx Air, keeping these planes serving Canadians
- They hired another 2,300 team members
"We also let down many guests during several disruptive events, including contentious labour negotiations, one that even slipped us into our first ever strike. The good news here is that we have no more open labour contracts for the foreseeable future, and we are back to a collaborative and trustful cooperation with our team and our union partners.
"We also can’t forget one of the worst weather events in recent Canadian history, a hailstorm that destroyed much of North-Eastern Calgary and severely damaged 19 of our aircraft in the middle of summer travel, regrettably impacting many guests.
We have since returned to the reliability you expect.
"Looking at 2025, we are working on a transformational year. A year we can finally put all the pieces together.
- We will merge Sunwing Airlines Inc. into WestJet, completing a process that takes us from 3 brands (WestJet, Swoop, Sunwing) into one large, scalable airline with ~200 airplanes
- We will complete the reconfiguration of all our jets into the same standard, and will install the world fastest internet and make it free to our rewards members
- You will see the biggest overhaul of our loyalty program since its inception, providing new perks and benefits
- We will complete the integration of our tour operator businesses under the Sunwing Vacations Group, growing the best value for money to vacation seekers
- Guests will experience significant improvements across our digital tools, check in speed, self-serve options and recovery during potential disruptions
"So, thank you to our guests and friends for your loyalty and support. We love to take you where you are going. And thank you to our terrific 15,000 team members across WestJet and Sunwing that work around the clock to let the stories of our guests take off."
