Diederik Pen, the Dutchman who has been president of Canada’s WestJet since the middle of this year, states that a return of the airline to Schiphol is not an option.
He cites the uncertainty surrounding the shrinkage of Schiphol as a direct reason. In 2022, the number of annual flights was to be reduced to 440,000, but after several lawsuits and appeals, that plan was shelved (for the time being). However, a contraction is still not definitively over and obtaining slots is still uncertain. According to Pen, airlines, including WestJet, see no solution in betting on Schiphol under these circumstances. ‘Twice we were only given landing slots for the winter at the last minute. That is not very interesting commercially, because both Canada and Europe are more of a summer destination. It failed because we could only sell tickets two months before the flights started. Then we were denied landing rights for the summer. As a result, we suffered millions of losses, partly due to my optimism,” the president of WestJet said in an interview with The Telegraph.
WestJet sees an alternative
In August 2021, WestJet landed at Schiphol with its Boeing 787, but those flights were short-lived. In November 2022, the airline returned with three weekly flights, but once again WestJet ceased those operations. Despite this, the airline wanted to focus again on Schiphol’s hub function. Due to the uncertainty, the airline is now abandoning this and, like others, is looking at other hubs elsewhere in Europe. ‘I’m not going to bump my nose for the third time. Due to all the uncertainty at Schiphol, we therefore flew to Paris with the support of Air France,” says Pen. ‘France is running away with the travelers because of the hassle in the Netherlands.’ The president of WestJet says he wants to focus on ‘exciting adventures’ in Barcelona, Rome and Tokyo, among others.
