Canada's WestJet (WS, Calgary) may defer refiling for regulatory approval for a cross-border joint venture with Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), WestJet Group Chief Executive Officer Alexis von Hoensbroech has told Airline Weekly.

“We are happy with what we are doing, and we haven’t decided to take any decision on potentially refiling [for] a joint venture,” he said in an interview. “We are happy with what we have and [will] take it from there.”

In October 2020, more than two years after they had applied for regulatory approval, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) tentatively granted antitrust immunity to the airlines' proposed cross-border joint venture but ordered them to exclude WestJet's budget subsidiary Swoop (Hamilton, ON) and to give up eight slot pairs at New York La Guardia. A month later, the two airlines dropped the plans, saying the conditions imposed were "arbitrary", "capricious", "unreasonable", and "unacceptable". They said the loss of slots would deprive them of critical operating rights at one of the most important strategic hubs in Delta’s global network. They said the JV would have no impact on slots at La Guardia. In contrast, the proposed slot divestitures would reduce competition on the New York City-Toronto city pair or result in the loss of La Guardia service to several smaller communities.

Delta and WestJet argued that combining their networks between 8,100 US-Canada city pairs would create an effective competitive alternative to the antitrust-immunised joint venture between Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) and United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare), which flies nearly 60% of seats in the transborder market.

The DOT is scheduled to review the JV in 2025.

WestJet and Delta have been in a codeshare partnership since 2011, which covers about 250 codeshare routes and reciprocal frequent flyer programme benefits. WestJet will launch four new routes to Delta hubs this May, including Calgary to Detroit Metropolitan, Edmonton International to Minneapolis St. Paul International and Seattle Tacoma International, and Vancouver International to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson. It has also extended its seasonal winter service between Winnipeg International and Los Angeles International to year-round status.

Meanwhile, WestJet focuses on the leisure market and low-cost travel after completing its merger with Sunwing Airlines (WG, Toronto Pearson) and Sunwing Vacations.