WestJet's explanation of the reasons behind the cancellation of service to Santa Clara, Cuba until
Jan. 6, 2018
We acknowledge there has been inconsistent messaging provided to guests who have had their flights to
Santa Clara cancelled in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. We apologize for this. As a brand built on trust,
we aim to be open, honest and helpful with the information relayed to our guests and we will use these
communication errors as areas of improvement for future events.
For Santa Clara, WestJet initially cancelled several weeks of flights immediately after the hurricane hit and
subsequently cancelled through January 6. We took a conservative approach to the timing as without solid
information on how long recovery would take, we wanted to avoid a situation where we were moving
guests’ holiday plans at the last minute if Santa Clara was not able to recover in time. Because the holidays
are an extremely busy travel time, flight and hotel availability are limited and we wanted as much time as
possible to secure another flight and destination for our guests. The cancellation of flights through January
6 was business decision that was made in order to use aircraft from the route to fly guests to other sun
destinations should their holiday plans have been affected by Hurricanes Irma, as well as Harvey and
Maria.
We again apologize for the erroneous information. We are aware that the Santa Clara airport is open, the
roads and infrastructure have been repaired and our hotel partners are making headway in recovering from
the damage.
We look forward to resuming our flight schedule on January 6, 2018
Best,
Lauren Stewart
WestJet Spokesperson