I've heard talk of WestJet joining SkyTeam too. I think that would be a good move both for WestJet and SkyTeam. Whether they will become a full member is another question. I postulate Virgin Atlantic will join SkyTeam before WestJet.
Although personally I'd like to see both join.

Nice addition to the WestJet offering using Pacific Costal airlines Saab aircraft under a capacity purchase agreement.

Details at:
http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1296

I have done Pacific Coastal on the Saab aircraft on the Saab 340 between Victoria and Prince George a few times. Comparable aircraft to the Q300. Excellent in flight service.

At the airport they are so much more pleasant to deal with in comparison to either the WestJet or AC checkin staff. They usually have the boarding passes printed before you arrive. Complementary checked baggage, with the carry on none of this silly-ness the other airlines have of re-consolidate your baggage so it is at most 2 items and fits. If the total volume of everything and weight is good then how it is composed into items just does not matter.

That's fantastic news for WestJet. I'm happy to see them expanding like this.

So is this additional service to these cities that didn't exist before? The quotes on the link you give from the cities in question suggest that it is. If so, that's awesome in opening up a number of communities to more convenient air connections and deserves a pretty serious celebration!

Joining an alliance would be pretty uncharacteristic for an LCC, though WestJet seems to be making themselves into a full-service airline nowadays.

I believe these are routes currently served only by Air Canada. Having WestJet market these routes means competition and more options.

Prince George and Cranbrook are existing Pacific Costal stations. However its different routes. Pacific Costal runs Prince George to Victoria service not Calgary. However it sounds like these are deals where all the space on the aircraft will be sold to WestJet and the aircraft will be painted in a WestJet design. WestJet is simply contracting out the operation of the flight but it is basically there.

I looked on flightconnections.com and it seems they all already do (via AC) except Prince George. Interesting also how many more connections Prince George has compared with Lethbridge despite being much smaller due to its greater geographic isolation.

The service will be sold by Westjet using WS pricing model. At the airport, it will be Westjet type checkin and westjet employees where the airport also has Westjet service. Pilots and flight attendant ,ight be the only Pasco employees the pax sees.

The list of unLCC things WS has been doing lately is longer than the list of LCC compliant things.

Operating regional routes for the sole purpose of contribution to the total network profitability where in the route loses money but it's hoped the summ total of all connection traffic will make the whole network more profitable.

Team red is a longtime fixture on these new Westjet link routes.

Comparing service and frills, there's little difference between WestJet and Air Canada for flights within North America. I would hardly call WestJet a LCC anymore. Even the legacy carriers are nickel and diming you for everything.

The only thing left to do is join an alliance..........

They could do what Alaska does and just go steady with both One World and Skyteam at the same time. Love triangles are had to keep going for to long.

My guess is Skyteam and WestJet will eventually starting going steady. One world will fell rejected and start to have coffee with Porter.

Id do anything to avoid Newark and United!

Can you explain further? I mean I understand the United part but why Newark? I have to book a trip down south. My options are United threw Newark or Air Canada through T.O.

^ Newark is fine. YYZ is a nicer airport but it's six of one, half dozen of the other. People in this thread just love to rag on whichever airline favours their city less than the competition.

Newark is fine unless your destination is Manhattan. It's a further trek than JFK or LaGuardia.

But if you're on your own, it's quicker and easier by train between Newark and Manhattan than JFK.

Newark is a pain to connect through, as it's a bunch of spoke terminals that all have separate security. So unless by chance your connecting flight is also from one of the gates in the same spoke, you have to exit and clear security again for the next spoke. It's a real pain, as all too often there's not enough agents on the security posts.

I've long found immigration much quicker and easier at Newark than JFK. La Guardia is just a complete dump, and brings a whole new meaning to the misery of flying. (Though to be fair to LGA it is undergoing a renovation project in the terminal, so may get better in a few years...)

Bingo.... Key problem with Newark relative to other airports. United runs shuttle bus between some of the terminals. Still painful to transfer.

JFK and La Guardia have the same problem, but because most people are transferring within the same airline and the airlines usually don't go across multiple terminals it is generally easier.

The root cause to all this is in the US many of these airport were designed in a time before complex security and most shops and amenities were pre-security since security was not as a big an issue. These older US airport suffer from physical layout problems dating back to the business model that existed when the building was built. Canadian airports generally have less issues in this way.

New low cost airline LEVEL will start Orly to Montréal next Summer.

Iberia from ORY to YUL. Who would have thought.

They will be the 5th carrier between the two cities, with the weakest frequency and brand recognition. That won't help them make a profit. Can't see this lasting.

Long haul low cost has yet to prove itself. We don't even know if Norwegian long haul on a stand alone basis makes a profit. They report their earnings with that of Norwegian Air Shuttle and their other ventures, and the whole operation is profitable, but the long haul operations probably are not.

https://paxnews.com/news/airline/aa-...s-ups-capacity

American Airlines is increasing service to Canada, including two new routes: YVR-ORD and YYC-ORD.