It’s been two days since WestJet’s mechanics ended their strike, but passengers are still grappling with cancelled flights and frustration.
“We were starting to wonder, ‘Are these re-bookings even real?'” Laura Stewart told CBC News Tuesday after WestJet rebooked and re-cancelled several of her flights over the long weekend.
“We were in the dark, really.”
WestJet had to park 72 per cent of its fleet after mechanics announced a surprise strike Saturday, which resulted in a slew of cancelled flights affecting at least 100,000 passengers. The strike ended Sunday, but the Calgary-based airline warned Monday that disruptions will continue for several days.
WestJet said it had cancelled 1,137 flights across Canada as a result of the strike as of Tuesday, including 295 on Monday and 75 on Tuesday. It expected eight flights to be cancelled Wednesday.
“WestJet has taken significant strides to resume normal operations,” the company wrote in a news release. “As of today, 125 of WestJet’s 180 fleet are now active across the airline’s network.
“Unfortunately, as July long weekend is a peak travel period across Canada, limited availability exists both within our network and through alternative carriers, making options for re-accommodation extremely challenging.”
Meal vouchers not enough, says frustrated traveller
Stewart, 55, had been travelling with her husband from Australia to Hawaii and was getting ready to leave the Honolulu airport Friday when, she said, she started hearing media reports of the WestJet strike.
When the couple went to switch planes in Vancouver Saturday morning, their flight back home to Regina was cancelled.
Laura Stewart, right, and her husband, Grant Gilchrist, pose at the Queensland Botanical Garden in Brisbane on June 23. The couple had travelled from their home in Regina to Australia for a wedding. They experienced several flight cancellations on the way home because of the WestJet strike. (Grant Stewart)
WestJet rebooked them on another flight, which was also later cancelled, Stewart said, so they paid out of pocket for a hotel in Vancouver.
After another cancellation the next morning, they eventually flew to Edmonton with the promise of a connecting flight to Regina. But then that flight was cancelled, too, which meant paying for another hotel stay, this time in Edmonton.
Finally, after another delay, they made it back to Regina on Monday. Stewart says all they had to show for the days of travel pains are two $15 meal vouchers.
“We were very fortunate that we’re in a position where we could handle the extra costs and we could handle the delay.”
Which flights are cancelled Tuesday?
Meanwhile, other WestJet customers are still stranded, including Gary Tater, 56, and his girlfriend, who have been stuck in Las Vegas since their flight back to Edmonton was cancelled Sunday.
“We are very concerned about trying to get out of Vegas with the 4th of July holiday coming up. Hotel prices are going to go through the roof,” Tater told CBC News in an email.
Using WestJet’s flight status tool, as of Tuesday morning, CBC News counted at least 63 cancelled flights meant to depart out of Canadian airports that day. At 18, Calgary had the most cancellations, followed by 10 cancelled flights out of Toronto and six out of Vancouver.
Also in B.C., there were:
Three cancelled flights out of Victoria.
Four out of Abbotsford.
One out of Comox.
One out of Nanaimo.
One in Prince George.
Two out of Kelowna.
On the Prairies, on top of the 18 cancellations out of Calgary, there were:
Five cancelled flights out of Edmonton.
One cancelled flight out of Fort McMurray, Alta.
One cancelled flight out of Grand Prairie, Alta.
Three flights out of Regina were cancelled.
One out of Saskatoon was cancelled.
Three cancelled flights out of Winnipeg.
In Ontario and further East, there were also cancellations in:
One in Hamilton, Ont. (its only flight Tuesday).
One in London, Ont.
Two in Thunder Bay, Ont.
One in Quebec City (its only flight Tuesday).
Two cancelled flights out of Halifax.
One cancelled flight out of Moncton, N.B.
Travel disruptions continue after WestJet strike ends
A strike by WestJet mechanics has ended and staff are back to work, but travellers are still scrambling to find alternative arrangements as the airline works to get its operations back to normal.
If your flight is delayed or cancelled, you will be notified by email if the company has your email address on file, according to WestJet’s guest updates page.
You can also check your flight status on the company website, by flight number or by airport.
What are your options?
WestJet says if your flight is delayed or cancelled, it will make “every effort to get you to your final destination, including moving guests to other airlines where available.”
In a statement posted to its website on Friday, WestJet says there are “limited re-accommodation options available,” suggesting it would be difficult for some people to make alternate plans to get where they’re going.
In its Tuesday update, WestJet wrote that, in compliance with the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, “in the event reaccommodation with WestJet or an alternative airline isn’t available within 48 hours of a guest’s scheduled departure, guests are entitled to request a refund to their original form of payment.”
On X Tuesday morning, the company wrote that “if online management is not possible for your booking, our Contact Centre is available 24/7 at 1-888-937-8538.”
But Tater, in Vegas, says trying to reach WestJet has proved nearly impossible.
“We have spent more than 16 hours on hold with them since Sunday night and each time those calls have been cut off before we were able to speak to someone,” he wrote.
“We’re extremely frustrated.”
Confused travellers remain at Vancouver airport after WestJet cancellations
Even after a strike by WestJet mechanics was called off on Sunday night, CBC News spoke to a number of frustrated travellers at YVR International Airport on Monday afternoon.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
