Westjet daily non-stop starting Apr 29
Halifax Stanfield (YHZ) to London Gatwick (LGW) on a Boeing 737-MAX8.

St. John's YYT is losing it's Westjet non-stop to London Gatwick (LGW).

I suspect WestJet's YYT-Gatwick flight couldn't compete with Air Canada's YYT-Heathrow flight. There really wasn't much cost savings, so may as well fly into the more convenient airport.

Vancouver-London, Ontario and Ottawa-St. John's are cut.

On top of daily non-stop YHZ - LGW we are getting daily non-stop YHZ - CDG on Westjet.

https://s18.postimg.org/iv9vsulah/cdg.png

Flights aren’t showing up on WS website yet but it does say “seasonal service to Paris continues May 31.”

You can book it now, $199 one-way in June or September to Paris. Connection times are good from Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and St. John's.

Also $199 to London Gatwick.

It still won’t let me book. It’s just showing me an error, the fare calendar appears but any date I select just says “no flights available for this date”. It will be so great having an option to CDG that avoids a connection in YYZ or YUL.

It will be officially announced at Noon Atlantic time, thats probably when their website will let you book. You can book it now through Google flights.

https://www.google.ca/flights/

I wasn't able to edit! but revised version.


https://i.imgur.com/mF0FosT.png

westjet.com/flight-schedules-new.

https://s18.postimg.org/lgt8lshg9/paris_london.png

http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1317

Westjet’s summer 2018 enhancements
 

Westjet has released its 2018 summer schedules.

Highlights at each of the four largest bases....

YYC gains the most at 72 flights per week and will once again, become Westjet’s largest hub. Approx 137 daily flights
http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1316

YVR gains the second largest number of weekly flights with 60. Approx 80 daily.
http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1319

YYZ gains 28. Approx 128 daily.
http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1318

YEG gains 21 weekly flights. Approx 62 daily.
http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1315

Halifax has such an incredible reach in Europe! In the US, however, there is basically just Florida, Boston, and New York.

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gcmap?PAT...R=red&MARKER=1

Glad to see WS increasing its footprint on YYZ-YUL and YYZ-YOW. Each receiving an additional 9x weekly flights.

So with YVR-YOW going double daily, that means YOW will see 16 additional frequencies next summer, YUL will see 10 additional frequencies. (addition of 1x weekly service on YYC-YUL)

YYT is a small market, and it couldn't support two carriers to London. Pure and simple. Surprised it lasted this long. YHZ-LGW makes more sense. YHZ-CDG is a nice addition as well.

The bilateral was just for codesharing.

As far as I know there is nothing stopping either AC or SA from starting a route tomorrow... other than it not making financial sense.

Updated route list for YYT, with WestJet's London-Gatwick removed.

http://i67.tinypic.com/2dlqan7.jpg

Fingers crossed we'll keep the Dublin one; I don't mind that it costs more to connect from Dublin than London, it's still pocket change compared to flying within Canada, and doesn't add the 8 hours or so flying to Toronto and back to get to Europe.

I think DUB is safe, on account that it doesn't have competition.

Continued growth at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport:

The Airport saw 4,305,744 passengers in 2017, a new record. This is a 7.2% increase over the previous year and marks four consecutive years of passenger traffic growth. Cargo traffic was also up in 2017.

http://www.waa.ca/media/news/article...ults-unaudited

Some stats going back to 2010:
Year Total passengers #Increase %Increase
2017 4305744 290544 7.24
2016 4015200 237165 6.28
2015 3778035 108238 2.95
2014 3669797 185899 5.34
2013 3483898 -54277 -1.53
2012 3538175 148938 4.39
2011 3389237 19263 0.57
2010 3369974

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ary_-_November

Despite this impressive passenger growth, amongst the highest in the country, the hub-and-spoke models of Westjet and Air Canada are killing our ability to attractd new direct service domestic and international routes. Bloody shame.

Is the hub-and-spoke model the problem or is it better longer range aircraft and higher passenger volumes all around.

Many years ago, if I wanted to do travel between Vancouver and Ottawa, Air Canada and CP would each have one non-stop. If the time was not convenient it would by a DC-9 with a stop in Winnipeg. Today it would be non-stop.

For many years, Winnipeg acted as a mini-hub for Saskatoon and Regina heading to from Ontario/Quebec. Now there are more direct flights to Toronto and Ottawa.

The same story exists in Ottawa and Edmonton.

Winnipeg is also hindered by its relatively isolated geographic position.

I'd say Winnipeg's best bet is to lure an outside airline (say, WOW or Icelandair) to provide more competition internationally.

Domestically, increased service by Flair is about the best option.

^ I think Winnipeg is reasonably well served domestically. At this point all that service improvements on that front would entail are additional frequencies. On the other hand, I don't think anything beyond token-level overseas service along the lines of what YEG/YOW have is really that realistic... and even with that, most overseas passengers will still end connecting in YYZ.

What would really make a difference, and where the sweet spot lies, is improved service to major US hubs. Things like:

-American Airlines service so that Winnipeg could feed into the oneworld network which does not exist here
-Upgauged service so that transborder flights aren't almost exclusively on cramped and relatively unreliable RJs with little if any premium seating
-Improved frequency to currently serviced cities like ORD and DEN, and turning PHX into a regular once a day flight where you could connect to other flights
-Direct flights to a couple of other hubs not currently served from here, including EWR (for access to the NE US and Europe), LAX/SFO (for access to California and Asia/Oceania). Even IAH, ATL and SEA would make a difference.

Improved US access would open up a swath of overseas travel options and exert a bit of downward pressure on fares through increased competition. Of course, this all depends on people reliably buying enough seats to support improved levels of service.