The Canadian domestic air ways were dominated by Air Canada. It had grown significantly since its acquisition of the second largest airline in Canada, that is, Canadian airline international Ltd. The two companies had competed for the Canadian market which left them in financial trouble as they tried to surpass each other. In 1998 Canadian airline could not compete anymore and in 1999 it was acquired by Air Canada which is government operated. But the damage was already unbearable. The introduction of low ticket flights ruined its operation as the competition became stiffer. Among these discounted carries was West Jet airline that was put up in 1996 with its operations mainly done at Hamilton. West jet performed very well during its introduction …show more content…
The businessmen looked at the business and noticed loop holes that they thought they could capitalize if they get into the business and make their customers more satisfied than they were before West Jet started. They identified their competitors which were; Air Canada, Canadian Airline International Ltd. They had analyzed the domestic passenger traffic by sector which had shown a significant increase by 15% between the years 1990 to 2000. They analyzed it also by region where by the distribution of passenger traffic by all domestic carriers was 6% for Atlantic Canada. West Jet took the advantages of the market and ventured into the business in 1996. At its time of venture Air Canada was at a crisis position, this was a government airline and therefore it was running bankruptcy but it was still controlling most of the market. West jet on the other hand was growing fast with an incredible acceptance to the market; it was the second airline after Air Canada thanks to its reduced air prices. Its competitors came later after 9/11. Some of these were, JetsGo (2002), CanJet (2002), Air Transat, Sky Services and Canada 3000. Air Canada had launched ZIP Air that was considered as a knock off of Wes jet as it operated on the similar routes. The pilots and the flight attendants were former Air Canada …show more content…
This was calculated in consideration of both passengers and aircraft movements. Greater Toronto Airports Authority which is a private organization in charge of the airport had started a project of increasing the capacity of the airport. However the money for the expansion was expected to come from raised ticket fares for the passengers and the carriers that used the airline together with landing fees. Pearson charged $32.37 per 1000 kg of MTOW while Hamilton charged $9.23. This proved hard for airlines to use the Pearson airport in complains of the charging rates. Although West Jest was still operating from Hamilton they still had flights operating at Pearson Airport. Their planned completely move from Hamilton to Pearson was expected to increase its attractiveness to more customers and also compete directly with Air Canada. On the other hand policies of the Pearson authorities would affect their operations and costs. Another factor that could be bad for West Jet planes was Pearson airport still handled more planes than Hamilton and therefore West Jet planes could spend more time on the ground than it is used to in