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Canada's Best: WestJet - Ken Donohue

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BRIAN MCNAIR<strong>WestJet</strong> flies an average of 383 flights a day. The longest is 6hr 19min from Vancouver to Honolulu.the company that are bought by employees. <strong>WestJet</strong> evencapitalized on the notion of their staff as owners in asuccessful advertising campaign.“We want to align the interests of our employeeswith the business,” says Cummings. “And we supportour employees by budgeting a million dollars annuallyfor our Care Department to organize parties and otheremployee get-togethers.” Whether it’s a profit-sharingparty, or renting a movie theatre, or inviting families towash airplanes, <strong>WestJet</strong> believes in the old adage that ifyou look after your people, they’ll look after the business.Cummings admits that as the airline becomes bigger, it ismore difficult to pull everyone together as they could inthe early days.Following Air Canada’s takeover of Canadian in 2000,<strong>WestJet</strong> was presented with an opportunity to expandinto eastern Canada, and established a base in Hamilton,Ontario, approximately 40mi (65km) south of Toronto.True to the airline’s business model at the time, theairport in Hamilton was underserved, and while <strong>WestJet</strong>moved its eastern hub to Toronto’s Pearson InternationalAirport in 2004, Hamilton is still an important city on theairline’s network.“The move to Toronto was one of the biggest thingsthe airline agonized about,” recalls Cummings. “TheCanadian market is only so big, and if we were to developboth the leisure and business market, and continueFlight attendants Jaime Messina and Dana Strilkiwsky prepare asnack and beverage service. About 83% of <strong>WestJet</strong>ters own shares inthe company.JUAN HOUSTON18November 2009

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