Westair A319 2003

In the early 2000's Westair found itself transitioning from Boeing to Airbus. why you may ask? Reporting is a bit scarce but the best sources have a few things in common. Westair had placed orders for 60 737-800 aircraft. Boeing decided to send a delegation of executives that included CEO Philip Condit to Westair CEO Evan Donaldson in a bid to try and convince a larger order, or perhaps deferring some of the 800s to 700s. The delegation ended up spending a significant amount of time at the Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, CA, a country cub near Donaldson's residence. Reportedly, Condit made repeated attempts to flirt with a young country club employee who was driving around a mobile cooler offering beer and other beverages to the golfers. Insider reports say that Condit told the young lady that, "You must be a runner. Your ass is too fat not to be." among other statements of such variety. This was reported to have gone on all day, much to the dismay of the employee. These events are rather important to contextualize later events. Upon returning to Donaldson's residence in Irvine, Donaldson learned of the comments made by Condit and was extremely irate. Enough so, Donaldson had kicked the Boeing delegation out of his home and announced two hours later at 17:30 PST that Westair had canceled their order of 737s and was considering halting their order of 757s. According to Airways Magazine, the young lady working at the country club that had gotten Condit's attention was Evan Donaldson's 17 year old daughter, working at the country club part time for the summer. Three days later on June 19, Westair had announced an order for 40 A320 and 25 A319 aircraft. Through some careful diplomacy and negotiating with both the Westair board and Boeing teams, Westair retained their order of 757s to further their expansion of routes in Latin America, as that was beginning to become a core market area. Condit would later be ousted in December due to unethical business practices. Westair received their first new airbus on December 31 2003.