WestJet to shut down Sunwing Airlines, merge it with mainline business
CBC
WestJet is planning to wind down Sunwing Airlines, integrating the low-cost carrier into its mainline business within two years as part of a plan to streamline operations.
In an internal memo obtained by The Canadian Press, Sunwing Airlines president Len Corrado said the change will open up markets for the 18-year-old company as well as its workers.
CBC has not independently verified that memo and has reached out to WestJet for confirmation.
"WestJet will eventually move to a one jet aircraft operating certificate (AOC) model and Sunwing Airlines will be integrated into WestJet," Corrado said in the memo, dated Wednesday.
"While exact timelines are still being finalized, the integration is expected to take up to a couple years."
The decision comes the week after WestJet opted to fold budget subsidiary Swoop's operations under its flagship banner.
Both moves magnify the major consolidation of the Canadian aviation market that followed WestJet's acquisition of Sunwing's main airline and vacation divisions last month.
The memo gave no indication that Sunwing Vacations would also shut down, suggesting that WestJet planes could be flying Sunwing tour package customers to their sun-soaked getaways.
"The WestJet Group remains committed to growing sun flying in the East alongside expansion plans in Western Canada, and this strategy will only be strengthened as we ultimately transition to a one jet AOC," Corrado wrote.
Sunwing did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
WestJet announced on June 9 it would merge Swoop with its main business by late October as the country's second-biggest airline recalibrates amid a fiercely competitive market.
The shift came five years after Swoop first surfaced as a response to discount rival Flair Airlines' launch in 2017.
It also landed after pilots with WestJet and Swoop ratified a new collective agreement that brings them onto a level pay scale, giving them a 24 per cent pay bump over four years.
In an interview last week, WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said he mulled keeping Swoop separate, but concluded higher wages for its flight crews made the option less feasible.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.
New poll results released by Narrative Research suggest the Progressive Conservatives are heading into Tuesday's provincial election with a commanding lead over their political rivals.
A measles outbreak in New Brunswick is set to push Canada's annual case count to the highest it's been in five years, highlighting how infectious the disease is and how low vaccination rates have allowed it to take hold, says an immunologist.