WestJet COO sorry for service outage that impacted more than 400 flights

In the last week, hundreds of WestJet flights were affected by a historic service outage, inconveniencing and frustrating flyers.

On Saturday, November 12, WestJet Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Diederik Pen shared a message apologizing for the service outage.

A technology failure led to the disruption of more than 400 flights, causing a “frustrating ripple effect across our operations,” according to Pen.

“In the days that followed, many cancellations were only further compounded by winter weather.”

Over the past week, we’ve worked to recover from a system-wide technology outage. This impacted many of you, and we recognize our ability to respond and reaccommodate your travel plans was not up to the WestJet standards you expect. We’re deeply sorry. (🧵)

— WestJet (@WestJet) November 12, 2022

WestJet said everyone affected has since been accommodated, but you can reach them here with outstanding concerns.

“Our ability to respond and reaccommodate was not up to the WestJet standards we know you expect. We let many of you down, and I am extremely sorry,” Pen said.

“We have never experienced a service failure of this magnitude and I want to assure you we are taking every corrective measure and action to ensure it does not happen again.”

Previously, on Saturday, November 5, WestJet shared that it was “aware of a system-wide outage impacting operations.”

“While the impact has been limited to only one cancellation, we are experiencing a significant number of delays across our network, and our contact center is unable to access guest reservations at this time,” the airline told Daily Hive at the time.

While the impact has been limited to only 1 cancellation, we are experiencing a number of delays across our network, and our contact center is unable to access guest reservations at this time. We are working to get systems back up and anticipate service will be restored shortly. https://t.co/7uDv21VVlD

— WestJet (@WestJet) November 5, 2022

Passengers made sure the airline was aware of their frustrations on social media. On Twitter, WestJet customers seemed frustrated at the company’s communications, saying there were issues for hours before WestJet shared anything.

Do better this has been happening FOR HOURS and this is the first crumb of information BRUTAL

— Tanya Thiessen (@TThieesen) November 5, 2022

Now, the company has apologized and things appear to be back to running to WestJet’s standards.

With files from Daily Hive Staff.