New reservation system to hurt revenue: WestJet

WestJet Airlines expects the ongoing transition to a new reservation system to have a negative impact on its fourth-quarter passenger revenue.

Published: 07 Dec 2009

WestJet Airlines expects the ongoing transition to a new reservation system to have a negative impact on its fourth-quarter passenger revenue.

WestJet introduced the SabreSonic system in mid-October. It is being reported that the launch has been riddled with disruptions that have eroded fourth-quarter revenue, including website crashes and long waits to get through to the carrier’s call centre.

WestJet president and CEO Sean Durfy said, “Regrettably, the transition has impacted the level of service that our guests have come to expect and deserve, and these service issues are carrying on longer then we originally anticipated.”

Durfy continued, “Although difficult to quantify, we believe that the challenges experienced in the transition to the new reservation system will negatively impact our revenue this quarter. Currently, our revenue per available seat mile (RASM) for the fourth quarter of 2009 is tracking to an anticipated year-over-year decline of 11 to 13 percent.”

Improving this disruption in its quality of service is airline’s number one priority.

“As such, we will now launch our new Frequent Guest and Credit Card programmes after the busy holiday travel season is over and our guest experience returns to our high standards,” said Durfy.

WestJet also shared its November traffic results with a load factor of 75.9 percent, down slightly from last year’s record level of 76.1 percent. Revenue passenger miles (RPM) increased 3.1 percent year over year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASM), grew 3.4 percent over the same period.

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