Shared accountability is key to protecting passenger rights, says WestJet CEO

WestJet was founded on the idea of improving air travel for Canadians and making it affordable for everyone. That valued relationship with our guests is embedded in our DNA. In order to improve the guest experience, we are advocating for a system of shared accountability as the government considers improvements to consumer protection. Over the 2022 holiday season, WestJetters and contract service providers across our network worked long hours, extra days, and spent time away from their own families to support our guests during an incredibly challenging travel season. We thank them for stepping up to help Canadians, and apologize to guests who felt let down by our organization. Since then, WestJet has returned to our familiar position as Canada’s most reliable airline,outperforming our competitors in on-time departures, arrivals, and completion factor. We are actively addressing the key pain-points of the holiday disruptions by improving our guest communications, network resiliency, scheduling recovery capacity, and overall baggage performance. The challenges our sector and our guests have faced this past year alone demonstrate just how critical and complex the passenger journey is, with every player along the way—including airlines—playing a vital role in ensuring they arrive at their destination. We take our obligations and responsibilities to passengers seriously, and are committed to working with all partners to improve the guest experience. There are many factors that play into any disruption or incident. When one link in the chain breaks, the entire system suffers: if an airport doesn’t have working equipment to clear a runway or receive baggage, or security lines are understaffed and flights are delayed as a result, passengers look to the airline to make it right. Unfortunately, under the Government of Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), there is only one group that faces regulations and compensation rules: the airline. These rules—which came into effect in December 2019, in a different operational reality—were not intended to capture safety or weather delays and cancellations. While we acknowledge our responsibilities and obligations, in order for guests’ rights to truly be protected, we believe these regulations need to change. There is a need to ensure greater shared responsibility and accountability. Every stop in the guest journey, and every provider who can contribute to a delay or cancellation, should be held accountable, just as we are. There are a number of changes that that would make this possible: Firstly, we are seeking the creation of a shared accountability framework for the air traveller. This government should expand the regulations to all those accountable, not just airlines. This includes communications protocols, performance reporting and measurement, service level agreements with users and a mechanism to allow for airlines to recoup APPR costs from other entities. Secondly, the government should end the “small carrier” provision, which treats travellers unequally on the same route. To a passenger, a WestJet flight from Calgary to Toronto is no different than flying that same route on another carrier. It could be the same aircraft serving the same destinations, but under the APPR, they have completely different compensation rules and re-booking obligations. For a passenger rights program to be truly effective, all passengers need to be treated equally. Thirdly, we believe the government should not be imposing major new costs on consumers or increasing pressures on airlines at a time when the sector is still recovering from the pandemic. The root problem is the need to improve overall guest experience. A piecemeal approach singling out airlines will not deliver the new era of travel we seek. Canada is a very different market from the United States and Europe. While comparisons can be made against passenger rights regimes in other countries, we have a vastly different climate, geography, and population base. There are few regulatory environments, or regulations, that capture the complexity of the challenges we faced this past year. Shared accountability will provide a better, more seamless passenger experience. I believe that, in the context of our sector’s recovery, these recommendations are both reasonable and responsible. They represent the best path towards our shared objective of resiliency and reliability. Our guests are rightfully asking for improvements to the travel experience, and we believe that shared accountability will reduce complaints, improve transparency for all guests and more properly reflect the root causes of delays and cancellations. Alexis von Hoensbroech is chief executive officer of WestJet and is responsible for the overall leadership of the WestJet Group of Companies. The Hill Times

Shared accountability is key to protecting passenger rights, says WestJet CEO

Shared accountability will provide a better more seamless passenger experience.

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Shared accountability is key to protecting passenger rights, says WestJet CEO

Shared accountability will provide a better more seamless passenger experience.

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