Dan Webb

I read an interesting post over at Today in the Sky yesterday. WestJet is leasing a couple Dash-8s from Hawkair (the lease includes crews) to maintain service at Prince George Airport in British Columbia during most September. There is some runway construction going on and the 737s won’t be able to deal with a shorter runway.

Now it’s not unheard of for an airline to hire another carrier to perform some service for them. For example, if memory serves JetBlue hired ExpressJet to fly a few E-145s for them when their E-190s needed software upgrades.

Today in the Sky also references a newspaper article, which quotes their public relations manager:

The idea of not servicing Prince George, stopping for a whole month, it just didn’t seem right to us.

Sounds kind of refreshing, doesn’t it?

The blog also linked to the official WestJet press release on the issue, and I found something interesting. WestJet refers to its customers as guests, not passengers. Maybe I just didn’t notice it before. But it does sound nice, doesn’t it?

I’m glad WestJet is continuing service. Even if it stopped the route for a month, the airport would still have service from other airlines. I’m sure its customers are appreciative. But WestJet also turned this situation into a good public relations situation and used it as a way to tout its good service. Nicely done.