Travel

WestJet nears deal to buy low-cost rival Sunwing

  • Last Updated:
  • May 1st, 2023 12:28 pm
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Mar 2nd, 2022 1:10 pm
Phonophoresis
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Oct 3, 2013
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West

Mar 2nd, 2022 1:10 pm

Never fly with Sunwing, but thank goodness we've had some ULCCs enter the market to counter-balance all the big boys trying to buy out their smaller competitors.

I'm surprised - WestJet was still struggling to get its own house in order last month, yet they've been working on this in the background. They still haven't even finalized their schedule beyond April 30th. I guess they are riding the hopes of pent-up summer travel demand.
Mar 2nd, 2022 1:41 pm
Arrgh
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Feb 15, 2006
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Toronto

Mar 2nd, 2022 1:41 pm

Westjet was struggling. But Sunwing must be going bankrupt. So it must be dirt cheap for anyone, in this case Westjet, to scoop it up.
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Mar 2nd, 2022 2:38 pm
smacd
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Oct 6, 2007
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Kootenays

Mar 2nd, 2022 2:38 pm

Westjet is owned by Onex, which boosted net earnings by 48 per cent to $1.4 billion last year. They can afford Sunwing. I think it's a good fit. Might bring a bit of respectability to Sunwing. Personally, I know RFD and many others crap on Sunwing, but we used them pre-pandemic and were very happy with the price to value.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/westjet ... -1.5802502
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Mar 3rd, 2022 8:11 am
Dealmaker1945
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Oct 23, 2017
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GTA West

Mar 3rd, 2022 8:11 am

Sunwing has a 737 fleet, including the new Max versions, the same as Westjet. So the fleets seem very compatible and should be easy enough to integrate for maintenance and training purposes, etc.
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Mar 5th, 2022 6:29 am
baillieul
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Oct 8, 2007
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Bedford

Mar 5th, 2022 6:29 am

I have never flown Sunwing as I was always worried about aircraft availability in the event of cancellations and such. This might make me more inclined to book with them with the possibility to be rebooked on Westjet, in theory anyway.
Oct 26th, 2022 7:00 pm
dolfan1980
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Aug 3, 2017
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Oct 26th, 2022 7:00 pm

Dhanushan wrote: ↑ Competition Bureau raises concerns about WestJet-Sunwing deal
Deal would likely result in substantially less competition in the sale of vacation packages to Canadians, bureau says

https://financialpost.com/transportatio ... et-sunwing
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Surely no worse for consumer competition than the AC acquisition of TransAT would have been.
Oct 26th, 2022 9:27 pm
StatsGuy
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Dec 20, 2018
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Oct 26th, 2022 9:27 pm

dolfan1980 wrote: ↑ Interesting, thanks for sharing. Surely no worse for consumer competition than the AC acquisition of TransAT would have been.
AC would've had to divest some of AT's transatlantic routes to get approval from what I recall

And I think sunwing has more vacation packages and owns interest in more hotels than AT as AT sold off interest in resorts to survive few years ago I thought?

Sunwing group owns a lot of resorts..way more than Transat ever did when they had small stake in oceans hotels?

The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing Travel Group is comprised of Sunwing Vacations and Vacation Express, two of the leading leisure tour operators in North America; Sunwing Airlines, Canada's premier leisure airline; SunwingJets, a luxury private jet charter service and Vacation Express, a growing tour operator in the United States together with the Group’s own travel retail businesses SellOffVacations.com and Luxe Destination Weddings. Blue Diamond Resorts is the Group’s hotel management company, an innovative organization that operates popular resort brands including Planet Hollywood Hotels & Resorts, Royalton Luxury Resorts, Memories Resorts & Spa, Starfish Hotels & Resorts and Mystique Resorts across the Caribbean and Mexico; while NexusTours is a full-service destination management company offering affordably priced and reliable ground transportation, popular tours and excursions, as well as other travel management services.
Oct 26th, 2022 9:38 pm
dolfan1980
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Aug 3, 2017
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Oct 26th, 2022 9:38 pm

StatsGuy wrote: ↑ AC would've had to divest some of AT's transatlantic routes to get approval from what I recall

And I think sunwing has more vacation packages and owns interest in more hotels than AT as AT sold off interest in resorts to survive few years ago I thought?

Sunwing group owns a lot of resorts..way more than Transat ever did when they had small stake in oceans hotels?
Sure, but ACV/AC and Transat surely were operating many of the same flights from ON/QC/Atlantic to the south as well.
Oct 26th, 2022 10:10 pm
StatsGuy
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Dec 20, 2018
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Oct 26th, 2022 10:10 pm

dolfan1980 wrote: ↑ Sure, but ACV/AC and Transat surely were operating many of the same flights from ON/QC/Atlantic to the south as well.
I don't think they (AT and AC) had monopoly on as many routes as Sunwing and WestJet.. they fly more popular routes as they don't need to have charter flights like sunwing to resorts sunwing owned down south. Sunwing is a way bigger player than AT for vacation packages down south. AT was more of a leisure airline that also sold vacation packages to properties they didn't own


and as already stated... sunwing is way bigger than AT in the resort market .
The review said this would affect 31 routes between Canada and Mexico or the Caribbean — 16 of which are offered as non-stop service by only the two carriers.

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