Beddoe offers resignation
WestJet's directors have refused to accept the proffered resignation of Clive Beddoe, the Canadian low-cost carrier's chief executive and co-founder. Beddoe offered to resign to take responsibility for the corporate spy charges levelled against WestJet and its senior managers by Air Canada and Jetsgo.
Lawsuits filed over these charges have become the talk of Canadian aviation. Air Canada claims that Mark Hill, who has since resigned as WestJet's vice-president of strategic planning, accessed a proprietary Air Canada website and used load factor data from it to plan WestJet schedules and fares.
The case has a cloak-and-dagger element because private investigators hired by Air Canada retrieved shredded documents from Hill's home and reconstituted them to show what he did. Air Canada also claims these documents implicate other WestJet officials, including Beddoe, and it has added them as defendants. When confidential Jetsgo papers also appeared among Hill's shredded files, Jetsgo brought its own lawsuit. Hill has counterclaimed for invasion of privacy.
A panel of WestJet's independent directors monitor these cases so that senior managers can focus on running the airline. That has not restrained Beddoe, however, who claims the charges lack merit and Air Canada is using them "to give WestJet a black eye".
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE
Source: Airline Business
