WestJet: WestJet's Amazing Growth

In the 1994 Clive Beddoe, an immigrant from England along with his business partners Tim Morgan, Don Bell and Mark Hill discussed starting a low cost airline based out of Calgary, Alberta.

You can watch WestJets startup conference in 1994 by following the link.

By 1995 Beddoes and other investors had more than $8.5 million in money accumulated to start the company. Despite the fact that they had so much money to start their company up (including the Ontario teacher’s pension plan board) the odds were against them as no other scheduled airline was able to compete successfully with Canadian airline leaders such as Air Canada. WestJet’s plan, despite fluctuating fuel costs, wanted to offer a lower cost for fares so that a new class of travelers could afford to fly. West Jet decided not to offer perks like some of the bigger airlines and as a result their fare’s were up to 50% less than that of a normal aircraft attracting thousands of customers. In 1997 WestJet began to operate Charter Scheduled Aircraft. Finally in the year 2000 WestJet decided to expand into Eastern Canada in our very own local Hamilton . As WestJet continues to grow so do the national and international destinations that they fly to. It is great to see a Canadian owned company succeed in such a short period of time, EH?