3,333 employees with WestJet are being permanently laid off due to organizational changes within the airline, that includes 279 in New Brunswick.
WestJet President and CEO Ed Sims says they are initiating a process to contract airport services, with the exception of at their four largest bases, Calgalry, Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton.
The company says it is closing its contact centres in Moncton, Vancouver and Halifax and will consolidate the centres to Calgary.
253 employees being laid off from Moncton’s contact centre, along with 15 airport staff. Fredericton will also see 11 airport staff members laid off.
A Moncton employee with WestJet who wished to remain anonymous says contact centre employees were laid off in April with the hopes of returning to work at some point, but they got the news yesterday that there will be no job to go back to.
430 roles in contact centres across the country wil be impacted. The thousands of other staff, are in airport operations including baggage handlers and customer service.
Sims adds, “The COVID-19 crisis has hit WestJet and the global aviation industry with devastating force. Since the beginning of March, guest traffic has dropped in response to virus fears and travel advisories that halted almost all but essential travel.”
WestJet has continued to operate service to all 38 year-round domestic airports during the pandemic to ensure essential lifelines for travel and cargo remained open but overall, the airline’s scheduled operations have been reduced by more than 90 per cent year over year.