WestJet Reports drop in second-qaurter earnings

They've improved from twelve years ago, but 8 years ago this ticket would have cost only $200. Remember when Westjet first came out with $29 Calgary to Vancouver tickets? What happened to that? Why can cheap European carriers fly you to anywhere in Europe for $50 (inc. taxes) or less?

Let's see... rising fuel costs, increased expectations for perks on low airfares, and the kicker... population of Canada 33 million. Population of Europe 728 million. Maybe there's a bigger market for travel in Europe?

I think passengers have finally cottoned on to the fact that there's some price-fixing going on here: for example, tickets from Vancouver to Toronto have gone up 300% from last summer: Westjet's offerings for this weekend, for example are $962 for the cheap tix. Sure as the law of gravity, people stopped buying the tickets when they got too extortionate: only business and bereavement travelers will get on a short-haul coach-class flight for close to a grand. Similar to Ansett in Australia, Air Canada and Westjet (to a slightly lesser extent) know that they have a captive market for domestic travel, and their business model seems to be "make hay while the sun shines"; Virgin Blue steamed into the Australian market and snagged all the customers with lower fares, and look at Ansett now...