WestJet Reports Record First Quarter Results

WestJet (TSX: WJA) today announced record first quarter net earnings of $52.5 million, a 75.9 per cent increase over the $29.9 million in the first quarter of 2007. The airline's diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the first quarter was 40 cents compared to 23 cents in the same period last year, an increase of 73.9 per cent.

First quarter revenue was $599.3 million compared to $470.7 million in the first quarter of 2007, an improvement of 27.3 per cent. Operating margin for the quarter was 13.8 per cent.

"Our strong start to 2008 is a direct reflection of the efforts of our people," commented Sean Durfy, WestJet President and CEO. "These results once again demonstrate our ability to deliver on our strategic plan. In this quarter, our capacity deployment strategy, which sees a portion of our fleet repositioned to sun destinations, benefited from our expansion into six new international destinations. Our performance was further improved by the first quarter strength of both the Canadian economy and exchange rate."


Operational Highlights

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                                               Q1 2008   Q1 2007    Change
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Load Factor                                       81.9%     81.1%  0.8 pts.
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ASM (available seat miles) billions              4.065     3.449      17.9%
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RPM (revenue passenger miles) billions           3.331     2.797      19.1%
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RASM (revenue per available seat mile) cents     14.74     13.65       8.0%
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Yield (revenue per passenger mile) cents         17.99     16.83       6.9%
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CASM (cost per available seat mile) cents        12.71     11.89       6.9%
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CASM excluding fuel cents                         8.58      8.69      (1.3%)
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Sean Durfy continued, "Oil and refining costs for jet fuel were substantially higher in the first quarter of 2008 compared to this time last year. We saw the price of fuel increase 30 per cent to 83 cents per litre. The impact to our costs resulted in an overall CASM increase of 6.9 per cent. Fuel prices will continue to be one of the airline industry's greatest concerns. Our low-cost structure, fuel-efficient fleet and the strength of the Canadian dollar throughout the first quarter improved our ability to cope with rising fuel prices.

"For the quarter, CASM excluding fuel was down 1.3 per cent to 8.58 cents, demonstrating our commitment to our low-cost, high-efficiency operating model. With our continued capacity growth, we were able to dilute our fixed costs over a larger asset base and achieved cost efficiencies through our increased block-time utilization that improved to 12.4 hours in the period.

"In the second quarter, we will take delivery of two additional aircraft bringing our fleet size to 75. Our second quarter capacity will increase 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2007. We will once again use this period to transition a portion of our capacity out of transborder and international and into our domestic schedule, as we prepare for the busy summer demand period and begin service to Quebec City in May and New York, via Newark, in June."

WestJet also reported first quarter operational performance. The airline calculates operational performance based on the US Department of Transportation's standards of measurement for the U.S. airline industry.


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                                               Q1 2008   Q1 2007    Change
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On-time performance                               69.0%     75.3% (6.3 pts.)
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Completion rate                                   98.1%     98.4% (0.3 pts.)
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Lost baggage ratio                                5.15      5.33      (3.4%)
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On-time performance represents the percentage of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. Completion rate represents the percentage of flights completed from what was originally scheduled. Baggage ratio represents the number of delayed or lost baggage claims made per 1,000 guests.

Sean Durfy commented, "On-time performance is a key indicator in measuring our guest experience. During the first three months of 2008, harsh winter weather in Eastern Canada contributed to the decline of our on-time performance. The hard work and dedication of our people allowed us to operate 98.1 per cent of our scheduled flights with only 5.15 reports of lost luggage per 1,000 bags.