WestJet reports highest load factor in 21-year history

WestJet today announced August 2017 traffic results with a load factor of 90.6 percent, an increase of 4.1 percentage points year over year. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 10.6 per cent year over year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 5.6 percent over the same period. The airline flew an all-time monthly record of 2.3 million guests in August, a year-over-year increase of 13.8 percent or approximately 288,000 additional guests.

“We are extremely pleased with our double-digit traffic growth, as we reported our highest ever load factor of 90.6 per cent, flew the most monthly number of guests in our twenty-one year history and set a new single day record on August 8th by flying 81,423 guests,” said WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky. “My sincere thanks go out to our over 13,000 WestJetters for continuing to deliver our award-winning brand of friendly caring service over this record breaking summer season.”

August 2017 traffic results

August 2017 August 2016 Change

Load factor 90.6% 86.5% 4.1 pts
ASMs (billions) 2.794 2.646 5.6%
RPMs (billions) 2.531 2.289 10.6%
Year-to-date 2017 Year-to-date 2016 Change
Load factor 84.3% 82.6% 1.7 pts
ASMs (billions) 20.851 19.682 5.9%
RPMs (billions) 17.575 16.265 8.1%

In August, WestJet announced an enhancement to its codeshare partnership with Air France-KLM by launching the earn phase of the airlines’ reciprocal frequent flyer agreement. Passengers can now accumulate their choice of Flying Blue Miles or WestJet dollars on all WestJet, Air France, and KLM flights, opening 137 new destinations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East for Reward travel for our guests. Also in August, WestJet announced it will begin serving Denver International Airport daily from Calgary International Airport starting March 8, 2018.

Are you part of this story?

  • Add this story to our main publication, eTurboNews, to be seen by up to 2 Million readers and submitted to major search engines, news aggregators, newsletters, social media, syndication, audio, and language translations. Click here

Leave a Comment