Air Canada Sues Westjet Airlines

Before I begin I just wanted to add to another thread, by saying I agree that the standards in the posts has declined and I’m sad to say so too have my visits to this forum. Hopefully this post will prove to be a little more lively.

This excerpt from theglobeandmail.com. For those who may be unfamiliar with our wonderful world of aviation in Canada, Westjet is the second largest airline in the country. It began as a ‘low-cost, no frills’ airline although this has slowly changed as they now offer leather seats, 32″ seat pitch and are installing LiveTV 24 channel satellite television throughout their NG fleet. It is currently estimated that they have 90% of the domestic presence that Canadian Airlines had at its peak and they are locked in a bitter battle for market share with Air Canada.

“In a statement of claim filed Tuesday in Ontario, Air Canada charged that one of its former employees — now working for WestJet — allowed his employee number and personal identification number or PIN to be used to gain access to Air Canada’s employee website a total of 243,630 times between May 15, 2003, and March 19 of this year.

The claims centre on Jeffrey Lafond, a former employee of Canadian Airlines International Ltd., which was taken over by Air Canada. He now works as a financial analyst for WestJet.

As part of his separation package from Air Canada, the airline alleges Mr. Lafond received two Air Canada tickets a year, for use on a space available basis, for five years. In order to book flights with the tickets, Mr. Lafond was given access to a special reservation website for the employees and retirees of Air Canada.

The website contains confidential information about the number of passengers booked on all flights at Air Canada and its subsidiary Zip for up to 352 days in the future, the suit claims.

In its statement of claim, Air Canada alleges WestJet, Lafond, and Mark Hill — the airline’s vice-president of strategic planning — used the information to identify Air Canada’s most profitable flights and times.

Air Canada is seeking $5-million in punitive damages, as well as damages for lost revenues and profits.

The airline also asked that any WestJet profits earned from use of the information be held in trust and that all the data be returned to Air Canada.

Officials at Calgary-based WestJet were not immediately available for comment.”

A few questions for all the users of the forum but especially those who are airline employees as I assume something similar to AC’s travel site can be found at most majors.

i] Do you think Air Canada was negligent to allow employees access to pax load information with this website or is it a necessary evil in order for employees to book stand-by travel with ease?
ii] Is Westjet in the wrong for taking advantage of this situation?
iii] Do you believe the end result will be the employees of Air Canada suffering with their pass PRIVELEDGES being restricted in some way?