WATCH ABOVE: Five threats to aircrafts in the last week have created chaos for passengers and crews, and many are hoping whoever is responsible will be caught. Heather Yourex updates the investigation.
Five WestJet flights and one Air Canada flight have been targeted by fake threats over the last several days.
But it’s not keeping investors from buying, nor travellers from booking.
The Wall Street Journal listed WestJet Airlines Limited among its Canadian stocks to watch in a report Friday, citing the string of bomb threat on its aircrafts.
But the threats likely won’t worry investors, Ramy Elitzur, a professor at the Rotman School of Management said in an interview Friday.
“Maybe in the short run. In the long run it won’t,” Elitzur said. “In the long run, what investors look for, is opportunity versus risk, and I don’t think it makes them more risky.”
By 3 p.m. Friday, the WestJet stock was up over 70 cents from a low on Monday, and Air Canada stock had fallen but returned to its Monday morning price.
Though the threats may not disrupt the airline’s stock price, business travellers don’t have the same luxury.
“If you need to fly to Winnipeg, what are you going to take? You’re either going to take WestJet or Air Canada,” Elitzur said.
“The problem is, of course, it creates disruption to business people, you need to make it to a meeting, you need to meet a client, you need to fly to your headquarters, and suddenly you cannot do that.”
The first threat targeted an Air Canada flight which led to the temporary closure of St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland.
The second was against a WestJet flight Saturday travelling from Halifax to Edmonton. It was diverted to Saskatoon where an investigation didn’t turn up any evidence of a bomb.
READ MORE: Experts weigh in on recent spate of bomb threats on Canadian flights
WestJet flight 323 travelling from Toronto to Saskatoon was targeted Tuesday and forced to land after a fake threat about an explosive device. That plane too was cleared by Saskatoon police.
WATCH: For the fourth time in a week a WestJet flight was forced to land because of a bomb threat, this time in Calgary. So far the threats haven’t turned passengers off flying. Jenna Freeman reports.
A WestJet flight was evacuated on Monday after an unspecified threat and six people were injured when leaving the plane.
Flight 722, a WestJet flight from Vancouver to Toronto was forced to land in Calgary after a hoax threat on Wednesday, and WestJet flight WS1709 from Las Vegas to Victoria landed safely after receiving a threat on Thursday.
A WestJet spokesperson refused to say whether the company had received any complaints or ticket cancellations as a result of the threats and pointed to their social media pages for a glimpse of customer reaction.
And it was mostly positive.
WATCH: Passenger on board WestJet flight describes what happened following bomb threat
And despite the litany of threats, Michael Giese, the owner of a Marlin Travel franchise in Toronto, said in an interview Friday that it hasn’t been affecting ticket sales.
“We just had people coming in, and they’re not concerned about this at all,” he said. “We haven’t had anybody come in and ask directly about WestJet.”
Hoaxes and fake threats tend not to keep people out of planes the same way government-issued travel warnings do, he said.
“People who want to travel, they listen to the news and they will travel. Unless there’s a government red flag,” he said. “In this case, there’s no warning to not travel with WestJet.”
WestJet said Thursday that the RCMP had launched a criminal mischief case in the wake of the litany of threats.
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