Fair enough, but remember, the $199 special is the one-time door crasher. They can't sustain that price and it will soon be up to something more reasonable.

Congrats Sig! Now your homeland will be connected to your homeland's homeland.

Yeah...

This story has blown up on Facebook like nothing I've seen recently. Sssooo many of my friends are posting about, planning trips, etc. It's really fun to see.

Word spreading in the comments (no idea if there's any shred of truth to it) is that the special price is if you book your flight before Dec. 4. We'll see.

*****

lol Denscity. I can't wait!!! I'll have to go to Waterford. It's Ireland's oldest city, and also the one from which just about every single Irish-heritage family in Newfoundland traces its heritage.

Actually no, they had to pick St. John's due to distance as they can not fly non-stop to europe from Halifax, Montreal or Toronto with a full Boeing 737. This is a test to see if it will be worth it for Westjet to purchase long haul aircraft like Boeing 757, 767 to fly direct from the larger Canadian airports.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...599/story.html

Right on. I hope it works out for them - and they keep the St. John's-Dublin connection going.

But, wow, the distance between Halifax and St. John's actually makes that much of a difference? It's only 900 km by plane.

Surprisingly it does. Air Canada has always needed a wide body Boeing 767 to fly to Heathrow from Halifax.

Regardless, I think a direct flight from St. John's to Dublin is a natural, especially with the Irish roots in NF.

I wonder if a 737 could make it from St. John's to Glasgow and London too?

The question to ask is this driven by a strong potential market or is this driven by the face WestJet has signed a contract with a company in Dublin to do some work on their aircraft and is going to need to shuttle aircraft to Ireland for maintenance.

http://www.businessandleadership.com...aviation-wins/

Either way it is a positive step. Hopefully they find it profitable and keep the service for the long run.

The flights from Vancouver to Hawaii are probably similar in distance. I am surprised WestJet does not try something similar from Halifax and St Johns with winter flights to the Azores.

Whatever the reason, we'll take it. :D

Just wanted to check the distance out of curiosity.

From St. John's to Dublin: 3300 kilometers.
From Vancouver to Honolulu: 4359 kilometers
From Vancouver to St. John's: 5020 kilometers

The circle route distance from Halifax to Heathrow is 4600km.

The max (spec) range for a Westjet 737-700 is 6100km with 136 PAX. The max range of their 737-800 is 5600km with 174 PAX. Not sure either would be practical or profitable to Heathrow though?? The 737-700ER has a range of ~10,000km, but I think they seat <150 PAX.

It will be interesting when the 737MAX comes out. Range for a MAX9 should be around 6600km with up to 215 PAX in one class and 180 in two.

They chose a flight number that's an homage to St. Patrick's Day, one of the most important dates on the calendar in both cities. :D

http://i41.tinypic.com/oqk84y.png

Flying to Vancouver takes approximately 9 hours, so 5 isn't so bad.

Happy City St. John's just posted the following status update on Facebook:

"It appears that the recently announced St. John's to Dublin flight is the beginning of a bigger move. Westjet is looking at turning St. John's into their Eastern hub for transatlantic flights; this could mean direct flights from here to a variety of European cities, and feeder flights between St. John's and the rest of the country. What kind of impact do you think this will have on life in St. John's?"

I think it'll be good news. It will probably introduce more North Americans to the city. Right now, St. John's is only a place you end up if you intentionally set out to come here and spend a considerable amount of money doing so. We're a final destination, not a stop on anyone's travel route. North Americans don't end up here in the same way we end up in, say, Montreal, or Toronto, when we travel. This will change that for those flying from mainland cities to Dublin.

As for the impact on us... it could open up travel for more Newfoundlanders by increasing competition and making it more affordable.

Really!! This was my quote on the announcement that I made the other day in the Atlantic Canada Airport Thread:

It would be fabulous for St. John's if this is true. I have flown to Europe via Keflavik on Iceland Air myself, and I thought their system was rather ingenious. All the planes from North America arrived within about 90 minutes of each other and all the flights to the rest of Europe left near the same time shortly thereafter. This allowed people from many different places in NA to make efficient connections to a number of European destinations with little kerfuffle or chaos. I thought it worked rather well. If St. John's could develop the same model, it could be a tremendous boon for the airport and the city…….

Now, if only WestJet would consider a direct Moncton-St. John's flight to feed into this (possible) system. Our current direct service via PASCAN to St. John's is just too expensive.

It'd be great. A part of me feels a little sad that it's not Gander, though, just for historical reasons. :D But I'll take it.

http://business.financialpost.com/20...hts-to-europe/

:previous:

Here is a good story in the Financial Post that explains it in detail. The St. John's Dublin route is 4,300 km and West Jet is comfortable flying their aircraft up to 4,800 km. It says they could potentially fly out of Halifax to Europe (although that might be stretching it).

Maybe Halifax to Glasgow as there is a strong connection between Nova Scotia and Scotland for obvious reasons. Zoom airlines used to fly the route. Zoom airlines also used to fly direct Halifax-Belfast, Halifax-London, and Halifax-Paris back around 2007.

http://hiaa.ca/2007/03/zoom-launches...start-in-june/

Heading to the Big TO on Dec. 10 for a couple of days on business. Exciting!

Also... airfares are disgusting, even when I added both of TO's airports to the mix. Based on the times I absolutely have to be in Toronto, most Air Canada flights were well over $1,000. There were a bunch of nine-hour flights with 2+ stopovers from Porter/others in the $600-$800 range.

But, God love WestJet, they're getting me there and back, in fewer than 4 hours each way, for $598!

Geez that turned into a commercial at the end there. :tup:

YYC looks great!
Can't wait to use it. :tup:

Calgary International Airport currently being doubled in size and capacity.


http://vipmedia.globalnews.ca/2013/1...2&h=448&crop=1
http://globalnews.ca/news/989093/gal...port-terminal/