Returning to the Skies
A 2-Year Journey of Resilience and Rebuilding
May 26, 2022 || 7:30 AM (MST)
For nearly 2 years, WestJet, along with airlines around the world, were forced to park the majority of their fleet and reduce their head count by nearly 9000 employees.
How did WestJet go from flying more than 800 flights per day in 2019 to around 40 per day at the height of the pandemic?
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Join us and learn about this incredible story of returning to the sky, including the re-launch of their direct route from Calgary to Dublin, Ireland. How they managed their parked fleet, what impacted their ever changing recovery, and what considerations and decisions had to be made for their vast team to return and begin working towards pre-pandemic travel levels.
John Weatherill
Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer
Westjet
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Reporting to the President and CEO, John leads WestJet’s Commercial team with responsibility for network planning, alliances, revenue management, sales, guest experience and WestJet Vacations.
John has more than 20 years’ experience in the aviation industry and joined WestJet in 2013 as Director, Network and Schedule Planning. He subsequently held the roles of VP Revenue and Pricing, and VP Network and Revenue.
Together, his teams are responsible for the optimization of WestJet’s revenue streams and the development of long-term guest engagement. This includes managing profitable global growth through the strategic deployment of the airline’s fleet of more than 180 aircraft including WestJet’s new 787 Dreamliners, delivering $5 billion in annual guest revenue, pre-pandemic.
Prior to joining WestJet, John was Executive Vice-President, Route Development at InterVISTAS Consulting. During his time there he held responsibility for management of the firm’s air service development practice, leading strategic projects for airport, government and tourism clients in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and North America.
John holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
John and his family enjoy travelling to sunny destinations. When he is not relaxing at his family cottage, he can be found building backyard skating rinks.
