Canceled flights | WestJet will reimburse its customers

Decision puts pressure on Air Canada

Jean-Francois Codère
Press

Already very high, the pressure on Air Canada to reimburse customers whose flights have been canceled because of the pandemic has just mounted suddenly. Its main Canadian rival, WestJet, announced Wednesday night that it intends to reimburse most of its customers in the coming months.

According to WestJet, the announcement makes it “the first national airline to voluntarily reimburse” its customers, “in the original form of payment,” rather than in the form of a travel credit.

Air Canada reacted quickly by accusing its rival of issuing a misleading statement. The first explanations published by WestJet indeed seemed to indicate that only tickets that were already considered refundable would actually be refunded. Air Canada has already made such an announcement and says it has spent $ 1.2 billion to comply.

However, WestJet subsequently corrected the situation – including responding directly to Air Canada on Twitter – to clarify that all tickets would be refunded, even those in lower categories normally considered non-refundable.

At the time of this writing, however, the information officially available on the WestJet website still indicated a desire to “reinstate reimbursement practices in accordance with our conditions in place before COVID”, which seemed to rule out the possibility of a cash refund for “Basic” or “Econo” class tickets. The company promised the imminent publication of a new press release that would clarify the situation.

WestJet intends to begin reimbursements on November 2 and estimates that it will take six to nine months to process all claims. It intends to proceed in chronological order, starting with the first canceled flights, in March.

The policy will only apply to customers whose flight has been canceled, and not to those who have canceled their ticket themselves. Similarly, it excludes customers who booked their tickets through WestJet Vacations.

The company did not want to specify what percentage of tickets for flights on the wings of its main line or its discount subsidiary Swoop would be excluded.

Pressure on Air Canada

“If Air Canada reacted so quickly by trying to qualify WestJet’s announcement, and WestJet responded, Air Canada’s position [de ne pas offrir de remboursement] will be difficult to bear ”, analyzed Wednesday evening the director of the International Observatory of Aeronautics and Civil Aviation, Mehran Ebrahimi.

As for Air Transat, its latest financial results showed customer deposits totaling 638 million, compared to cash of 856 million. This liquidity has since declined and may currently be below the level of possible repayments. The company recently secured a loan of up to $ 250 million to help it continue to operate.

Before government assistance

WestJet’s move comes just days after the federal government began to give clear signs that it was working to put together an air travel aid plan, which the industry is calling for. loud cries for months now.

WestJet could therefore have simply chosen to take the lead, Judge Ebrahimi.

WestJet’s financial statements have not been made public since the company was acquired by Toronto-based conglomerate Onex in December 2019. It is therefore impossible to know how much the refunds could be and if the company has the cash. required.

“Over the past eight months we have worked diligently to position ourselves to offer refunds, which has led to this announcement,” a spokesperson said by email.