Canadian airlines lost 23% of international market share: WestJet chief

Airlines in Canada during the coronavirus pandemic have lost 23% of their market share on international routes to competitors in Europe and the USA whose governments have provided sector-specific relief funds, WestJet CE Ed Sims said during an online discussion hosted by multinational aviation group Eurocontrol on 2 March. The Calgary-based airline has been hit with “a double whammy” that forced it to dramatically reduce capacity amid a lack of federal airline stimulus and restrictions for domestic and international air travel, Sims says. Governments have provided around $200b to airlines since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Eurocontrol data, while Canada has only provided a federal wage subsidy to companies impacted by the pandemic instead of direct aid to any specific industries. This has resulted in what Sims says is a “scandalous” situation that forces WestJet and other Canadian carriers to reduce flights and allow competitors based in other nations to capture market share. “We’re operating every single day at an enormous structural disadvantage to Lufthansa, to Air France, to Delta / KLM,” Sims says. “We have lost 23% market share to international carriers, and I think that is disgraceful.”<br/>