WestJet dealing with staffing shortage, asks for patience from passengers
Posted August 13, 2021 9:29 am.
Last Updated August 13, 2021 11:35 am.
CALGARY – WestJet is asking for patience from guests as they deal with a staffing shortage.
After basically being in hibernation for the last year Richard Bartrem, WestJet’s VP of Communication, says they are in the process of bringing back staff as quickly as possible.
“Pre-pandemic WestJet would have been just over 14,000 employees. We would have gone down to at it’s lowest just over 4,000. We find ourselves at about 6,000 right now and by the end of the year we will be back to 9,000.”
He points out that flights were reduced dramatically during the pandemic too.
“If you look at an airline like WestJet that pre-pandemic would have had more than 700 flights a day back in 2019. We got down to a low of about 30 flights a day and now we’re back to about 350 flights that are operating across our network every day and we’re trying to balance out and bring back the requisite number of people as quickly as possible.”
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Even as they bring people back, it still takes time to get those employees up to speed on protocols and procedures, Bartrem says.
“Even as we bring people back to our contact centre, for example, they are diligently working the phones as quickly as they can but even as we bring people back it’s taking us a couple of weeks to train them,” he said..
“We are running training classes every week to get people on the phone as quickly as possible to deal with some of the backlogs that unfortunately our guests have been experiencing.”
He adds it’s not just airlines dealing with this, it’s the airports as well.
He’s recommending people show up for flights with enough time to make it through check-in and security.
Bartrem also says to make sure you know what the requirements are for flying and what regulations might be in place at your destination.
