WestJet Airlines reports increase in August passenger traffic

WestJet Airlines has announced its operational results for the month of August 2013. The airline was quite happy at the positive outcome. The airline reported a remarkable growth in its traffic saying that it has increased by 11.5 percent in August this year as compared to the same month in 2012.

The Calgary-based WestJet Airlines said that it carried 1.8 million passengers this August, up 150,000 or 9.1 percent , when compared to the same month last year. The airline also said that a larger growth in capacity had caused its load factor to slightly drop by one percentage point to 87.9 percent. Providing details about its capacity, WestJet Airlines said that its capacity or ASM (available seat miles) increased 12.8 percent, compared with the 11.5 percent increase in RASM (revenue available seat miles).

Gregg Saretsky, CEO of WestJet Airlines, said that there is a jubilant atmosphere in the company now with the double digit y-o-y passenger traffic growth and strong load factor achieved in the month of August this year, especially considering almost 13 percent capacity growth.
 
Saretsky said that a new premium economy plus service was introduced by WestJet Airlines in August this year. The new class is specifically designed to attract more business travelers to fly with the airline. The customers are being offered complimentary food and beverage, advance boarding, change and cancel options, and extra leg room. Additionally, WestJet Encore regional service was also launched by WestJet Airlines. This regional service is exclusively for Western Canada.