West Jet to fly Canada>DR

[Jasper]

from The Globe & Mail 08/21/03:

Transat, WestJet sign charter pact




Transat AT Inc. announced a deal Wednesday with WestJet Airlines Ltd. to charter planes from the Calgary-based airline to fly from several Canadian cities to southern destinations, including Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The deal will be worth an estimated $29-million during the first season.

"The addition of WestJet's narrow-bodied aircraft will complement Air Transat's wide-bodied fleet. We will now be able to increase our service offering in certain markets and broaden our offering in areas which could not otherwise be served by our aircraft," Transat's Lina De Cesare said in a release.

Transat said the deal will see the company's two main tour operators, World of Vacations and Air Transat Holidays, fill WestJet planes with passengers from Canada headed to southern destinations.

"Destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Varadero will all be served by WestJet aircraft and crews through the partnership with Transat," WestJet vice-president Bill Lamberton said.

Transat specializes in holiday travel and runs the airline Air Transat. The core of its business is in Canada and France.

WestJet is Canada's second-biggest airline after Air Canada, with about 20 per cent of the market.

[ricktoronto]

Expect charter-like schedules, random stops and remember the 1 inch of legroom on the WJ 737's for 4-5+ hours especially from the prairies to the DR.

They are flying on behalf of AT so you can bet AT is calling the shots on the times and routes.

Charters have horrible, horrible service that hardly thinks of the customer. You really do get waht you pay for.

[bob saunders]

Have flown Transat twice to the DR. never had any problems with anything. Just lucky I guess. Personally I would rather travel crowded for 7 hours without any stops at a cheaper price than flying AA, Continental, Air Canada with the 2 or more transfers/stopovers I need from Vancouver.

[penguin]

I have flown Air Transat 3 times--twice to the DR (from Vancouver--most recently in April) and once to Mexico--also from Vancouver with NO problems whatsoever. Have als flown WestJet to Alberta many times with no probelms at all! I have also flown Air Canada to France with nothing BUT problems the WHOLE TIME!--right from the time we arrived at check-in to the time we landed--to the time we arrived back in Victoria on our transfer plane from Vancouver. We also had 2 stop overs on our way to France and 3 on our way back-- Yes, Air Canada has more leg room but it is not worth it for the problems we endured. I will be flying Air Transat next time we go to the DR and if WestJet is flying by that time (January or February) we will look into that, as well!! It is just too bad it costs $200-300 extra to get a connecting flight from Victoria and we have to catch that blasted ferry!

[AnnaC]

Any prices up yet for WestJet?

[Transat]

PRICES ARE ON THE AIR TRANSAT BROCHURE FOR THIS WINTER

The charter provide the pax with another way of travelling

The charters provide a discounted fare, but they still provide free meals on board compared to regular airlines for they charge alot t and also now charge for meals.


So I think that charters are still very good and they provide a very good service perhaps people think that they dont.