Modern Communication of Bad News: The Unresolved WestJet Cyberattack
What happened at WestJet?
This article states a cyberattack, where WestJet’s internal systems were accessed by hackers, is still unresolved after it began one week prior (Reynolds, 2025). The Canada Post is acting as a mediator transmitting statements made by spokespeople from WestJet (Reynolds, 2025). This article also states that “intermittent interruptions or errors” may be encountered by customers using WestJet’s website or app, and that it has not affected operations (Reynolds, 2025). Stating this positive benefit to customers of uninterrupted operations is important in delivering bad news.
WestJet’s headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but they operate internationally, with its customers and passengers located around the world (GlobalData, n.d.). The occurrence of the cyberattack is online and in WestJet’s internal systems, visible to the public as errors on the WestJet website and app (Reynolds, 2025).
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WestJet’s spokesperson did not indicate what type of incident the attack was, such as malware or ransomware, but stated that “investigations in collaboration with law enforcement are ongoing” (Reynolds, 2025). The article provides the context of this incident as just before the G7 summit in Kananaskis but states no direct link between the attack and G7 was identified (Reynolds, 2025). The last line of this article makes a broader statement on airlines and airports becoming popular targets for cyberwarfare due to the large volumes of personal and financial data they hold (Reynolds, 2025).
Aviation & Current Events
This article is of particular interest as it is communication through a mediator, an online newspaper The Canadian Press, following up on initial bad news of a cyberattack at WestJet with minimal additional information (Reynolds, 2025). Navigating what and how to communicate negative messages in the context of business is important to preserve and serve one of the core goals of any business. Poorly delivered negative news can erode trust, reduce customer loyalty, deter partners and investors, and increase costs from potential penalties or payouts. The stakes are even higher as this incident occurred just before the G7 summit with world leaders gathering in the Kananaskis and travelling by air.
As my program is aviation management, looking at communications airlines put out is relevant to what I will be doing in the future. As well, understanding this communication from both the perspective of the company and its customers is possible in this article, as it is not an internal communication, and the audience is the entire public, anyone who decides to view the article. WestJet is a relatively large company with dedicated media relations employees and a chief information officer (WestJet, n.d.), so communications for journalists would have been formulated carefully with oversight. This brief article updating the public about the cyberattack incident at WestJet is the result of careful decisions narrowing down what broader information was available. This is also an example of a strategic negative message as the communication is mindful of “content, structure, context, and tone” (Meyer, 2021, p. 254D).
Art of Bad News
Delivering unfavourable news requires the use of exact language and consideration of the audience, arguably more complex than any other form of communication for business due to the underlying conflict between the sender and receiver of the message (Meyer, 2021, p. 254D). In other words, purpose, audience, information, benefits, objections, and context for completeness, concreteness, clarity, consideration, courtesy and correctness have to be navigated even more precisely for bad news.
We Live in a (Risk) Society
Trends in business communication follow technological developments, particularly the immediacy and speed at which information is not only deliverable but then expected by the audience. Interconnectedness and convenience in business communications also come at a cost of susceptibility to cybersecurity threats, piracy, and identity theft, to the extent that modern society has been called a “risk society” (Meyer, 2021, p. 7D). This risk is an inherent part of operating in the modern world, one which WestJet suffered a cyberattack from.
Corporate social responsibility also includes accountability and corporate ethics (Meyer, 2021, p. 8D), and disclosing information is part of conducting business responsibly. The article states “Investigations in collaboration with law enforcement are ongoing, but the company has not specified the type of the incident, such as a malware or ransomware attack” (Reynolds, 2025). This precise choice of wording does not outright state law enforcement cooperation prevents further information from being released, but simply insinuates this while avoiding libel. WestJet may be legally bound or advised against making statements about what the cyberattack targeted, but this may also be a choice in order to avoid sharing its vulnerabilities to other potential cyberattackers.
Announcement: Rip the Band-Aid Off
By communicating information on the cyberattack itself and this update in a timely manner and in brief professional statements, WestJet is limiting potential communication barriers such as mixed messages, semantic interference, and information overload (Meyer, 2021, p. 48D). The context of this as mass communication with a largely anonymous audience, the public, is important (Meyer, 2021, p. 52D), as this is an indirect transmission of the message with The Canadian Press acting as a mediator.
Don’t Shoot the Bad News Messenger
With the above context and audience in mind, this article effectively used plain style with simplicity and stated facts best for high-speed modern communication (Meyer, 2021, p. 120D). An example of this is in the sentence, “An online advisory says the attack, which was detected late last week, has not affected operations but that some customers may run into “intermittent interruptions or errors” on WestJet’s website and app” (Reynolds, 2025). The article also used a strategic way of writing certain statements in a passive form to de-emphasize the unfavourable news (Meyer, 2021, p. 164D), such as “WestJet says a cyberattack that began last week remains unresolved” (Reynolds, 2025), rather than stating WestJet has not yet resolved the cyberattack.
As unfavourable news, this article achieves a primary goal of avoiding specific repetition of the bad news (Meyer, 2021, p. 254D), through the use of synonyms such as “attack”, “breach” and “incident” (Reynolds, 2025). Another primary goal is maintaining goodwill by explaining that WestJet is acting to investigate the cyberattack with the involvement of law enforcement (Reynolds, 2025). Unfavourable messages’ secondary goals of promptness and accountability (Meyer, 2021, p. 254D) are reflected in the timeliness of WestJet’s statements, following up one week after the initial cyberattack and initial statement (Reynolds, 2025). This shows WestJet’s transparency and dedication to communicating clearly with the public.
If there was something additional you had known about the nature of the cyberattacks not included in the article, would you have decided to communicate this information to the public? For example, if the cyberattacks had accessed private customer data, or algorithms proprietary to WestJet? Why or why not?
All images are stock images sourced from Pexels.com.
References
GlobalData. (n.d.). WestJet Group Inc — Company Profile. GlobalData. https://www.globaldata.com/company-profile/westjet-airlines-ltd/
Meyer, C. (2021). Communicating for Results (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. https://iws.oupsupport.com/lti/1/arc/meyer5e-student-resources/communicating-for-results-5e-non-iws
Reynolds, C. (2025, June 20). WestJet cyberattack remains unresolved one week in, airline says operations unaffected. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/westjet-cyberattack-remains-unresolved-one-week-in-airline-says-operations-unaffected-1.7567003
WestJet. (n.d.). Media resources. WestJet. https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/media/ressources-mediatiques
