On Monday, Canadian airline WestJet released its initial summer 2024 schedule with a year-on-year increase of around 15%. It seems that the high summer demand of last year is set to return this year and that WestJet is set to grab its share of the peak holiday season traffic.
New routes at home and away
WestJet is significantly increasing Canadian coast-to-coast travel while offering more capacity than any other Canadian airline to popular sun destinations, including Hawaii, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is adding ten new routes and returning or extending 16 routes to bolster its robust growth strategy, with the full summer schedule to be completed in the coming week.
WestJet Group Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer John Weatherill said the summer schedule continues to deliver on its commitment to make critical investments across Canada to provide more affordable options for Canadians and international visitors.
“This summer will see the return of seasonal, leisure-focused flying to connect Eastern and Western Canada, and substantial growth in service to sun destinations, further cementing our position as Canada’s leading leisure airline. At our global hub in Calgary and cities across the country, WestJet’s schedule supports Canada’s visitor economy with more than 75,000 seats arriving each week from Europe, Asia and the United States.”
While Western Canada will see 15 new routes to and from its region, WestJet customers in Eastern Canada have not been forgotten, as they will see 11 new routes. These include:
New direct seasonal service between Calgary and Deer Lake, Newfoundland.
Return of seasonal non-stop service between Toronto and Deer Lake, Moncton (New Brunswick), Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island) and Victoria in British Columbia.
The return of transatlantic flying between Halifax and Dublin, Edinburgh and London, and St. John’s and London Gatwick.
A 44% growth in Halifax (Nova Scotia) and 60% in St. John’s (Newfoundland) compared to Summer 2023.
More seats to the sunny destinations
For those looking to escape the cold winter, WestJet is Canada’s top choice for leisure travel, as it will offer more capacity than any other airline for Canadians looking to fly to popular holiday destinations this summer. WestJet is the only airline operating year-round services between Canada and Maui-Kahului from both Calgary and Vancouver, and this year has more flights between Canada and Hawaii than any other airline.
Compared to the summer of 2022, the airline will operate 57% more capacity on Latin and Caribbean routes and is adding 56% more capacity from Toronto to its sun destinations. This extra capacity will be operated by WestJet’s passenger fleet of 171 aircraft, which includes 117 Boeing 737s, seven 787-9s, and 47 wet-leased De Havilland Dash 8-Q400s turboprops.
According to fleet data from ch-aviation, the narrowbody jet fleet includes 39 Boeing 737-700s, 46 737-800s, and 32 737 MAX 8s, with four 737-800(BCF) freighters to handle cargo operations.
Illustrating the importance of its codeshare partnership with Delta Air Lines, Westjet will grow transborder seat capacity by 26% this summer, including adding 70% growth to Delta hubs. The partnership gives WestJet’s passengers access to more than 100 US destinations through Delta’s hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Other transborder schedule changes introduced for the summer include new services between Regina and Minneapolis, Vancouver and Detroit, and Edmonton and Atlanta, while there will also be direct connectivity between Edmonton and San Francisco and Nashville.
WestJet will offer more direct flights to Phoenix and Las Vegas from Western Canada than any other airline, and 2024 will see the return of the seasonal service between Halifax and St. John’s to Orlando, Florida.