When planning a special five-week, overseas family vacation to celebrate her birthday and other milestones, Kelly Gillease was willing to splurge a bit on travel expenses to kick off the June trip.
Airline prices for a direct flight to Paris from San Francisco, where she lives, were around $4,500 US for three one-way economy tickets. Then Gillease noticed a deal to pay an extra $500 US per person to travel in business class, which included lie-flat seats.
“The differential was not very large to get a much nicer experience,” said Gillease, who works in marketing. “We thought it’s worth it to kick off the trip and get lie-flat seats and pay not much more money than what we would have paid to fly economy direct from San Francisco.”
The family bought the tickets to help ensure they were well-rested upon landing in Paris, where they would be for only four hours before travelling on to Corsica, a Mediterranean island in France. Their itinerary also included stops in Denmark and Norway, before spending the final two weeks on an African safari.
The catch? They had to make a connection in Calgary and fly with WestJet.
When Gillease chose to hub her international voyage through Calgary, she became part of a trend that has seen an increase in American travellers, mostly from the west coast, who are flying with WestJet to overseas destinations.
A record number of Americans flew with WestJet to Europe this summer. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Record figures
This summer, 86,000 passengers on international flights with WestJet began or ended their journey in the U.S., which is a record high for the airline.
The number of Americans on WestJet’s transatlantic flights is up nearly 70 per cent compared to last summer, the airline said.
All of WestJet’s flights to Asia and Europe are based out of Calgary. The airline operates year-round or seasonal flights to Tokyo as well as European cities like Edinburgh, London, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin and Paris.
There are a variety of reasons for the rise in U.S. passengers flying through Calgary, including an increase this year in the number of international flights by WestJet.
Those extra seats come at a time of high demand, high prices and few available seats on many U.S. and European airlines on flights across the Atlantic Ocean, which has created an “extremely strong” air travel market, said John Grant, the chief data analyst at OAG, an aviation analytics firm.
“The continued post-pandemic ‘revenge-spend’ phenomena is in existence,” said Grant, who is based in the United Kingdom. “The strength of the U.S. dollar has encouraged more U.S. visitors to Europe.”
Grant added that people will often opt for a indirect flight because they think they can get a cheaper fare. “And sometimes they can.”
WestJet has increased the number of overseas flights over the last decade. (Tiphanie Roquette/CBC)
Soaring costs
The number of seats on flights between the U.S. and Europe is only three per cent lower this summer compared to 2019, said Hayley Berg, the Boston-based lead economist for Hopper, an airfare finder app.
But fares for those flights are up sharply as airlines cash in on consumer cravings for trips abroad. The average ticket price for a round-trip transatlantic flight in June was $1,054 US, a nearly 17 per cent increase compared to 2019, according to Berg.
“We have seen very high airfare throughout the summer. I would say from the perspective of June and July, it was the highest airfare that we’ve seen from the U.S. to Europe in the last five or six years at least,” she said.
Following the pandemic disruptions to the industry, some American and European airlines no longer operate transatlantic flights or haven’t brought back as many routes. The industry also faces labour challenges, relatively high jet fuel prices and limitations at some airports.
WestJet has cut several region routes in Canada but added more international seats out of Calgary.
“WestJet has seen an increased demand for U.S.-based transatlantic travel that exceeds all years prior to 2023,” WestJet spokesperson Julia Kaiser said in an e-mailed statement.
“This increase, alongside significant demand of our Canadian-based guests, has resulted in WestJet adding transatlantic flights and destinations by welcoming Tokyo-Narita to our network and increasing service to Paris to a year-round cadence.”
Choosing Calgary
The number of U.S. travellers is “very important for WestJet, no doubt about it,” said Grant, the analyst with OAG.
Calgary is a good connection from many cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, but it’s still a relatively small international hub airport, Grant said.
“It’s also about price and you’re dealing with people at the most price-sensitive point in the market. They don’t have brand loyalty to WestJet, they have brand loyalty to their personal income and expenditure. So it would be folly to place more and more capacity on the basis purely of the connecting markets,” he said.
For Gillease, who had flown with WestJet several years ago, the flights from San Francisco to Calgary to Paris were a “lovely” experience in terms of food, customer service and comfy seats, she said.
Proposed changes to air passenger protections as complaints soar
Unfortunately, upon arriving in Paris, her husband’s luggage didn’t turn up. Missing was a large backpack with belongings they specifically packed for the safari, including hiking shoes.
At one point, the bag was marked as permanently missing and they didn’t think they would ever get it back, said Gillease. But after three weeks, it arrived in Europe — just in time for the family’s flight to Africa the following day.
The family is waiting to be reimbursed for expenses connected with the lost bag. Still, Gillease would fly with WestJet again from the U.S., though she’d hesitate to check any luggage.
“I would fly them again if I just had carry-ons because the flight experience was so nice,” she said.
Most job search advice is cookie-cutter. The advice you’re following is almost certainly the same advice other job seekers follow, making you just another candidate following the same script.
In today’s hyper-competitive job market, standing out is critical, a challenge most job seekers struggle with. Instead of relying on generic questions recommended by self-proclaimed career coaches, which often lead to a forgettable interview, ask unique, thought-provoking questions that’ll spark engaging conversations and leave a lasting impression.
Your level of interest in the company and the role.
Contributing to your employer’s success is essential.
You desire a cultural fit.
Here are the top four questions experts recommend candidates ask; hence, they’ve become cliché questions you should avoid asking:
“What are the key responsibilities of this position?”
Most likely, the job description answers this question. Therefore, asking this question indicates you didn’t read the job description. If you require clarification, ask, “How many outbound calls will I be required to make daily?” “What will be my monthly revenue target?”
“What does a typical day look like?”
Although it’s important to understand day-to-day expectations, this question tends to elicit vague responses and rarely leads to a deeper conversation. Don’t focus on what your day will look like; instead, focus on being clear on the results you need to deliver. Nobody I know has ever been fired for not following a “typical day.” However, I know several people who were fired for failing to meet expectations. Before accepting a job offer, ensure you’re capable of meeting the employer’s expectations.
“How would you describe the company culture?”
Asking this question screams, “I read somewhere to ask this question.” There are much better ways to research a company’s culture, such as speaking to current and former employees, reading online reviews and news articles. Furthermore, since your interviewer works for the company, they’re presumably comfortable with the culture. Do you expect your interviewer to give you the brutal truth? “Be careful of Craig; get on his bad side, and he’ll make your life miserable.” “Bob is close to retirement. I give him lots of slack, which the rest of the team needs to pick up.”
Truism: No matter how much due diligence you do, only when you start working for the employer will you experience and, therefore, know their culture firsthand.
“What opportunities are there for professional development?”
When asked this question, I immediately think the candidate cares more about gaining than contributing, a showstopper. Managing your career is your responsibility, not your employer’s.
Cliché questions don’t impress hiring managers, nor will they differentiate you from your competition. To transform your interaction with your interviewer from a Q&A session into a dynamic discussion, ask unique, insightful questions.
Here are my four go-to questions—I have many more—to accomplish this:
“Describe your management style. How will you manage me?”
This question gives your interviewer the opportunity to talk about themselves, which we all love doing. As well, being in sync with my boss is extremely important to me. The management style of who’ll be my boss is a determining factor in whether or not I’ll accept the job.
“What is the one thing I should never do that’ll piss you off and possibly damage our working relationship beyond repair?”
This question also allows me to determine whether I and my to-be boss would be in sync. Sometimes I ask, “What are your pet peeves?”
“When I join the team, what would be the most important contribution you’d want to see from me in the first six months?”
Setting myself up for failure is the last thing I want. As I mentioned, focus on the results you need to produce and timelines. How realistic are the expectations? It’s never about the question; it’s about what you want to know. It’s important to know whether you’ll be able to meet or even exceed your new boss’s expectations.
“If I wanted to sell you on an idea or suggestion, what do you need to know?”
Years ago, a candidate asked me this question. I was impressed he wasn’t looking just to put in time; he was looking for how he could be a contributing employee. Every time I ask this question, it leads to an in-depth discussion.
Other questions I’ve asked:
“What keeps you up at night?”
“If you were to leave this company, who would follow?”
“How do you handle an employee making a mistake?”
“If you were to give a Ted Talk, what topic would you talk about?”
“What are three highly valued skills at [company] that I should master to advance?”
“What are the informal expectations of the role?”
“What is one misconception people have about you [or the company]?”
Your questions reveal a great deal about your motivations, drive to make a meaningful impact on the business, and a chance to morph the questioning into a conversation. Cliché questions don’t lead to meaningful discussions, whereas unique, thought-provoking questions do and, in turn, make you memorable.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
CALGARY – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. reported a third-quarter profit of $2.27 billion, down from $2.34 billion in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to $1.06 per diluted share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 compared with $1.06 per diluted share a year earlier.
Product sales totalled $10.40 billion, down from $11.76 billion in the same quarter last year.
Daily production for the quarter averaged 1,363,086 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 1,393,614 a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Canadian Natural says it earned 97 cents per diluted share for the quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $1.30 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 90 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
CALGARY – Cenovus Energy Inc. reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year as its revenue edged lower.
The company says it earned $820 million or 42 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $1.86 billion or 97 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $14.25 billion, down from $14.58 billion in the same quarter last year.
Total upstream production in the quarter amounted to 771,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 797,000 a year earlier.
Total downstream throughput was 642,900 barrels per day compared with 664,300 in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Cenovus says its funds flow amounted to $1.05 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from adjusted funds flow of $1.81 per diluted share a year earlier.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
