Southwest-WestJet airline deal could be in jeopardy

By Richard N. Velotta

Thursday, April 1, 2010 | 6:12 p.m.

The proposed code-share partnership between Southwest Airlines, McCarran International Airport's busiest carrier, and WestJet Airlines, the largest source of international passengers to McCarran, might be in jeopardy.

In a statement issued today by Southwest, the Dallas-based carrier said a new WestJet deal with Delta Air Lines "could be inconsistent with the agreement presently in place" with Southwest.

Southwest learned through the media that Delta was in talks to divest some of its landing and take-off slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport to WestJet. Southwest, a 2009 entry to the LaGuardia market, hasn't been able to expand at the airport because of the limited number of slots available.

The proposed code-share partnership between Southwest and WestJet has potential impact on Las Vegas because McCarran is the largest station both airlines serve. Under the code-share deal, Southwest and WestJet would sell tickets to each other's destinations and offer a seamless passenger and luggage transfer.

Southwest currently has an average 215 daily flights in and out of Las Vegas. WestJet has an average of 10 flights a day to McCarran - twice as many as the next busiest international carrier, Air Canada. WestJet has operations to and from Montreal; Toronto; Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna, British Columbia; and Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan.

"The Southwest-WestJet project was on target in accordance with a mutually agreed upon timetable," Bob Jordan, Southwest's executive vice president of strategy and planning, said in a statement issued today. "However, WestJet in recent weeks requested material and significant changes to our agreement that we could not accept. We are, and always have been, prepared to move forward to implement our agreement with WestJet.

"We have not yet been notified of WestJet's intent to terminate that agreement," Jordan said. "If we are so notified in order for WestJet to consummate its deal with Delta, Southwest remains very interested in offering our loyal customers service to Canada via the most efficient means possible."

The two airlines signed an agreement in 2008 to begin work on the code-share deal, but progress was slowed last May after a slide in passenger traffic.