Not surprising WestJet (WS) chose Calgary YYC to operate to London Heathrow UK as they mentioned previously that they plan to use its 787’s for flights✈️out of busiest hubs in Calgary, Toronto & Vancouver✅!

It’s a similar situation for Air Canada (AC) which operates most of its International flights with the 777, 787 & A330 out of its busiest hubs Toronto,Vancouver Montreal & Calgary.

At the end WestJet’s press release :
[Quote :Additional network details for travel between Calgary and London-Heathrow including frequency, timing and introductory pricing will be available, and for sale, in the coming weeks. Quote]

Yep stay tuned as it’s when probably WestJet 2022 Summer Schedule will be released around that point too.

I think WestJet is probably waiting to see what destinations in Canada the new Lynx Air starting up 2022 throws at Calgary YYC before it announces the Summer 2022 schedule / also make changes to it.

I don't think Westjet is overly concerned with Lynx and I don't think they'll wait for Lynx. If anything, they'll announce a similar route, increased frequency, or reduced fares on the route Lynx serves.

Fair point! It’s looks like Canada’s Newest Lynx Air ✈️ will be known as (Y9) for short with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) code & they now have a Wikipedia information page too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_Air

That page was created in 2008. They are basically Enerjet and simply changed their name.

WS and Transat signing a transatlantic codeshare:

Air Transatand WestJet have agreed to co-operate on a codeshare agreement for transatlantic travel.

The deal will allow travellers to book flights to Europe involving both airlines on a single ticket with through-checked bags.

Under the arrangement, WestJet’s code will be placed on Air Transat flights to select cities in Europe, while Air Transat’s code will be placed on select WestJet flights in North America.

The agreement is expected to be implemented early next year, subject to regulatory approvals...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...ntic-travel-2/

noflyzone will probably have the best opinion on this but i see this as the 1st step of WestJet acquiring Air Transat (long term) to get their foot into Quebec. On the other hand this will probably help Air Transat to keep afloat in the short term and long term.

In the long term their fleet's aren't exactly compatible but i think those 321XLR's are priceless for any company to have.

If Onex was smart, they'd buy Air Transat, but leave the operation completely separate from Westjet. Have them codeshare on flights and share some background services, but have the management completely separate.

Voila! Westjet Group/Air Transat is now a national airline, Westjet gets a whole bunch of European coverage with fewer planes and expansion costs. Air Transat gets reliable feed from the rest of the country. Westjet Vacations in the west, Air Transat in the east.

A sort of real competitor to Air Canada.

While Air Transat could be valuable to have, wouldn't this take pax off their Europe flights from YYC, YYZ or maybe YVR and make them connect in YUL and YYZ on Air Transat instead?

I wouldn't read too much into this past the codeshare.

The pandemic killed travel demand. When TS resumed operations earlier this year, they realised that having a go at it alone was the least ideal scenario. They needed some partners to provide feed. WS is such a partner now.

if WS truly wanted to takeover TS, I don't think they would have partnered with a codeshare first. You're essentially helping TS stay alive by filling their planes to Europe from YYZ/YUL, and therefore increasing their revenues, and also increasing competition for yourself across the Atlantic. If you want to takeover an airline, it's about "divide and conquer". Leave TS alone, so they suffer, and then come in with the lowest bid possible when they are the most vulnerable. The fact they aren't doing that tells me they don't want TS, at least not yet.

WS probably agreed to the codeshare because it benefits them in the short term as well. Transatlantic travel is recovering much faster than the rest, and with WS's limited 787s, this was the best way for them to increase their presence in that market in the short term.

This is a smart move for both TS and WS at the moment.

And btw, TS has A321LRs, not XLRs.

I imagine WS will only codeshare with TS on city pairings that WS alone doesn't serve.

On a separate note, the Calgary Herald the other day had an article about how YYC's recovery is faster than any other airport in Canada: https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...urprising-rate

In this week's update, WS has extended its modified schedule to mid-March. It's pretty much the same as January with a few extra flights thrown in for spring break/the long weekend.

Maybe now they'll finally update this page:
https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/flight...ional-schedule

If anyone's wondering what the latest (and most likely to get off the ground) iteration of what Canada Jetlines will look like, they want to be a clone of Sunwing:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canad...130000464.html

Don't think anyone mentioned it but AC is exiting the federal gov't support program they negotiated. The feds still own 6% of the airline as a result of the stock they bought, Given Freeland's musing about AC performance reviews, I'd expect AC to try and buy those back soon.

Air Canada walks away from $4B in federal aid as liquidity rebounds
Noah Zivitz, BNN Bloomberg

Air Canada gave the clearest signal yet on Friday that its financial condition is substantially improving after dealing with the darkest days of the pandemic.

In a release, the airline said it was exiting the government support program after tapping less than half of the $5.375 billion that it lined up in April.

Air Canada said it only availed itself of $1.2 billion in federal financing earmarked for refunding tickets that were originally meant to be non-refundable, and that $3.975 billion was not used...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/air-cana...unds-1.1684438

^ Crazy how things can change in just 7 months.

They cried for government cash for a year, and when they finally get it, they no longer need it.

It's partly a sign that the market is recovering faster than expected. But also, it shows that the government negotiated well with AC before dishing out the cash. The fact they want to give it back is because there are strings attached with that cash. Strings they're keen on getting rid of.

This is also why WS rejected government bailout from the get go.

That is an indication the government got it right. They provided a back stop that ensured the airlines would not fail and Canadians would still have air service. At the same time they made the cost of using so high that it would only be used if required and the companies would back out as quickly as possible.

No sir. I believe it was 3x weekly way back around 2003 I believe. At the time WS experimented with YQM as an Atlantic hub before they served YHZ. There were 2x YYZ-YQM with one of those trips continuing to YYT 4x weekly and YQX the remaining 3X weekly. Daily YHM-YQM as well. There was also YOW-YQM on Saturdays as well as YEG but i cant remember the days that ran exactly. It didnt last long though. Maybe 12-18 months. I have a picture of 6 737s overnighting in YQM that winter.

The 1 stop you’re probably thinking about ran YQM-YHM-YEG after WS set up shop in YHZ right up until Encore took over YQM service.

I agree about them getting it right. WS also had the added benefit of parent company Onex as a whole remaining solidly profitable during the pandemic.

The only one of those non-YHM/YYZ ones that I remember from that era was the weekly YOW Saturday flight. I remember WS' network planning east of Manitoba was rather bizarre to say the least. They were flying YOW-YYT and YQX eastbound nonstop 4x & 3x weekly respectively but via YHM in the other direction. YOW-YQM was Saturdays only and YQT-YOW was nonstop daily eastbound but only 1x weekly nonstop westbound. The rest stopped at YHM first. Thanks for all that early Atlantic WS history.

YOW's October pax stats are out featuring the first transborder passengers since June 2020:

Sector / Oct-20 / Oct-21 / % Chg.
Dom: 38,551 / 175,215 / +354.5%
TB: 0 / 160 / #DIV/0! - evidently the Airport Authority have stopped counting hockey charter pax using the terminal, otherwise this would be about double & September would have been 50-60 pax.
Int'l: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0! - coming with next month's report
TTL: 38,551 / 175,375 / +354.9%

Sector / YTD 2020 / YTD 2021 / % Change
Dom: 955,631 / 834,172 / -12.7%
TB: 163,093 / 160 / -99.9%
Int'l: 168,382 / 0 / -100.0%
TTL: 1,287,106 / 834,332 / -35.2%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2019
Dom: 910,578 / -77.2%
TB: 160 / -100.0%
Int'l: 0 / -100.0%
TTL: 910,738 / -82.2%

The meaningful pandemic pax stats
Month-Over-Month Change
Sector / Sep-21 / Oct-21 / % Change
Dom: 172,778 / 175,215 / +1.4%
TB: 0 / 160 / #DIV/0!
Int'l: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 172,778 / 175,375 / +1.5%
Avg/Day: 5,759 / 5,657 / -1.8% - a slight decline vs September. YOW is now back to about 39% of pre-pandemic traffic levels in Sept & Oct.

Flair started Vancouver-Burbank the other day. Apparently the inaugural flight only had 11 passengers on board ! Yikes...

Speaking of inaugurals, Air France starts PTP-YUL today. A320 operating, initially 1x weekly, going to 2x weekly as of Dec 10.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/AF624

Also, in unrelated news, AC is fined $4.5 million by US DOT for delays in giving out refunds on flights to/from the United States during the pandemic.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air...ates-1.6258394

You have a pretty good memory ! I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, much less what was WS's maritime roster out of YOW 15 odd years ago.