Research and Analysis Paper on WestJet Airlines Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of WestJet Airlines, a prominent low-cost Canadian airline. It begins with an introduction to WestJet, highlighting its establishment in 1996 and its mission to offer affordable air travel. The report then delves into a SWOT analysis, evaluating the airline's strengths (e.g., economical prices, timely flights), weaknesses (e.g., limited long-distance travel), opportunities (e.g., growing demand for air travel), and threats (e.g., competition from Air Canada and other low-cost carriers). The report also examines WestJet's marketing strategies, utilizing the 4Ps model (Product, Place, Promotion) to assess its approach. It further explores the environmental constraints faced by the airline, such as the need for fuel-efficient aircraft and environment-friendly buildings, and the associated financial investments. The organizational structure of WestJet is also discussed, emphasizing its bottom-up design and employee empowerment. Finally, the report offers recommendations for improvement, including expanding travel destinations, increasing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, and enhancing social media marketing. The report concludes by summarizing WestJet's position as a successful low-cost airline and emphasizing the importance of continued attention to CSR, environmental protocols, and marketing strategies for future success.

Running head: RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS PAPER ON WESTJET AIRLINES
Research and Analysis Paper on West-Jet Airlines
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Introduction
West-Jet Airlines is a low cost airline service that has its base in the country of Canada
and which first came into existence in the year of 1996. The purpose of West-Jet Airlines was to
provide passengers with a low-cost or inexpensive alternative to the services that were then being
made available by all the other major competing airline companies in Canada (Broderick et al.,
2019). West-Jet Airlines is seen to fly not only within all important destinations in the country of
Canada but also across the globe, to places such as Mexico, Europe, the United States of
America, the Caribbean and the Central American region. It is currently the largest airline
company in Canada after Air Canada, which is the country’s national carrier. West-Jet Airlines
has managed to acquire fame for the provision of quality services at cost effective rates
(Chapman, 2016). This paper engages in an analysis of the business operations conducted by
West-Jet Airlines, with an attempt being made to assess its weaknesses and strengths, to identify
the type of environmental constraints or challenges that it is faced with at the time of running its
business operations and also to recommend the ways by which the airline can improve upon its
existing services.
1. SWOT Analysis of West-Jet Airlines
Strengths – West-Jet Airlines is a company that offers flight services within Canada and outside
of Canada across destinations in Europe, Caribbean, Latin America or Central America as it is
commonly known and also in the USA. The key strength of West-Jet Airlines lies in the fact that
it offers flight services around the world at the most economical prices. The flights are also

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known to be on time for the most part, and the inflight services are of a high standard too
(Chapman, 2016).
Weaknesses – The fact that West-Jet Airlines is a low cost carrier implies that it cannot travel
across distances as vast as regular international air companies can or are able to. West-Jet
Airlines cannot also offer the standard of food and drink that is made available on international
flights like competing or rival companies like Air Canada because it is seen to charge a budget
fare in lieu of its services, and can only provide its passengers with the most basic services, even
if of a high standard (Gillen & Morrison, 2017).
Opportunities – The demand for airlines is at an all-time high today, not only in the country of
Canada but also all over the world. People are especially on the lookout for the opportunity to
travel without spending too much on airfare and low-cost airline companies like West-Jet
Airlines give passengers the scope to travel across the world without having to worry about
draining their resources in order to be able to do so. As a result, there is plenty of scope for a
company such as this, to grow, expand and develop in the coming years, provided it takes care
with the quality of services that it makes available to its customers (Gillen & Morrison, 2017).
Threats – The threat of competition is quite high for a company like West-Jet Airlines. Its
biggest rival is Air Canada, which flies all over the world and which offers superior inflight and
flight services for the benefit of customers. There are other low cost and competing airlines in
the European region where West-Jet operates, such as Ryan Air, who are capable of absorbing
some of this company’s target base here, should it not be careful about the way that it positions
its services at the global level (Chapman, 2016).

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2. Marketing Strategies of West-Jet Airlines
The marketing strategies as seen to be adopted by a company like West-Jet Airlines will now
be analyzed in detail using the model of the 4P’s.
Product – The product that is offered by West-Jet Airlines are domestic flight services across
different cities and towns in the country of Canada as also international flight services. This is an
airline company that is seen to have a global presence and operates in the United States of
America as well and in Central America, the Caribbean and in Europe. It has quite a global
presence and is seen to offer timely and quality flight services for the budget traveler (Marowitz,
2017).
Place – The places where West-Jet Airlines is seen to be active are in the country of Canada as
also in Europe and in the USA. It is active as well in Caribbean and Latin America. In all of
these places, West-Jet Airlines offers budget or low cost flight services for interested travelers
(Marowitz, 2017).
Promotion – The task of promoting business is something that is seen to be taken by a company
like West-Jet Airlines very seriously indeed. The company is seen to make active and extensive
use of social media in order to promote its services, with some popular social media platforms
being utilized by the company being Facebook and Instagram. Through such social media outlets
the company is seen to keep its target audience well informed about the type of services that it
has to offer and the many benefits that can be availed upon doing the same. Social media
platforms are used by the company to give customers can idea of the type of services that they
can avail if they choose to use West-Jet Airlines to travel to any of the destinations where this
enterprise is seen to have a business presence. Offers, deals and discounts are communicated

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quite frequently to customers through its social media pages, and there is an attempt to share
recent pictures and photos of the airport and inflight services that are provided by the company
for its passengers. Additionally, promoting services through the use of television and radio and
through print media advertising such as advertising in newspaper channels and magazines is
something that West-Jet Airlines is seen to do quite frequently. In other words, the company
leaves no stone unturned to advertise and promote its low-cost services as effectively and as
efficiently as possible for the benefit of its international and Canadian target audience
(O’Connell & Williams, 2016).
3. Environmental Constraints Faced by West-Jet Airlines
Caring for the environment and showing concern for the natural environment is a duty
that West-Jet Airlines is known to take very seriously. The company has recently purchased the
type of aircraft and aircraft engines that are characterized by the latest tech-insertion features and
which are more than likely to increase fuel efficiency on the go (Taneja, 2016). When it comes to
its buildings in Calgary and other parts of Canada as also in other parts of the world where it runs
its operations, a number of environment friendly measures have been incorporated by the
company. To begin with, the buildings mostly make use of solar energy panels for emanating
light, in the place of electric energy and there are provisions for rainwater harvesting in these
buildings as well. The constraints that are faced by the company as a consequence of these
environment friendly measures that it has had to take in the recent past, lies in the fact that the
company has had to invest a lot of money to do so. The purchase of aircraft engines with tech-
insertion features has itself proven to be a drain on the resources of the company, given that it is

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a low-cost airline service, and such a feature also implies that for the sake of fuel efficiency, the
aircraft cannot fly over very long distances (Paskova et al, 2018).
4. Organizational Structure and Design at West-Jet Airlines
The organizational design and structure of the West-Jet Airline Company includes a CEO
at the helm of affairs, followed by a Vice Chairman and a Chairman of the Board of Directors.
As such, the organizational structure that has been adopted by the company is what may be
termed as a bottom up structure. All three members of the top level management of the
organization are seen to partake in the core duties and operations including technical support as
well as administrative support. The fact that the organizational structure at West-Jet Airlines is
the bottom up design indicates that the employees who are working for the organization are
highly empowered and that every effort is made on the part of the management to take the views
and suggestions of employees into account before arriving at any important business decision.
The bottom up approach shows that decisions cannot be taken by the members of the top level
management of the company in an arbitrary manner, without taking into consideration, the
wellbeing of the employees working for the organization (Taneja, 2016).
5. Recommendations
There are of course a number of recommendations that the West-Jet Airlines should take
into consideration in order to be able to improve upon its existing services.
 The West-Jet Airline Company should consider expanding its travel to more countries
and destinations across the world than it is seen to do at present. By doing so, the
company will be able to become more versatile in its operations and this versatility is

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likely to be well received by its target audience, who will then make increasing use of
such airline services, again, both of the cost effective rates at which these are provided
(Chapman, 2016).
 The West-Jet Airline Company should make it a point to conduct CSR activities not only
in the Canadian cities and towns where it has its offices but also in other parts of the
world where it has a business presence. Greater CSR on the part of West-Jet Airlines will
go a long way in getting this company to be favorably viewed by its target audience all
across the globe (Broderigo et al., 2019).
 More efforts need to be made by the company in promotingservices through the use of
social media, so that customers can be kept abreast of exactly what is happening with
West-Jet Airlines and where. Keeping customers updated will help the company to do
good business at all times, as it is always going to be in the know among its target
audience, be it in Canada or elsewhere (Taneja, 2016).
Conclusion
Thus, West-Jet Airlines is quite a popular, efficient and well-known Airline company that
operates in Canada and other parts of the world and which has acquired fame and name for its
low cost services. To be able to engage in international travel at a cost effective rate is a matter
of great privilege for passengers. By paying more attention to the matter of corporate social
responsibility, by adhering to environmental protocols and by making more use of social media
marketing strategies, the company can position itself to do even better in the future than what it
is seen to do in the present.

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References
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