WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

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JBI
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WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by JBI »

Not surprisingly, the first few Dreamliners and their routes will be based in YYC and will be going non-stop to destinations that WJ already serves (Dublin, London, Paris). While not as exciting as say Asia or new destinations, I think that this is an extremely smart way to start service of the new airliner. Also some good news for YYC based crews. While the additional Dreamliners will no doubt allow new destinations from different Canadian bases to be announced, I'm happy to see a more measured approach to introducing new services with a refocus on Calgary.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ ... -1.4856849
WestJet's first 3 long-haul Dreamliners will fly direct between Calgary and Europe
Along with the new planes comes new direct flights to Dublin and Paris
CBC News · Posted: Oct 10, 2018 8:49 AM MT | Last Updated: October 10


The first three of WestJet's 10 new long-distance Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will offer direct international flights between Calgary and Europe, the company announced Wednesday.

The new planes mean direct flights between Calgary, Dublin and Paris. One of the new planes will also fly the already established Calgary to London, England, route.

"This is a huge day for WestJet. This signals our first real venture into becoming a full-service, fully global network carrier," said airline chief executive Ed Sims.

"It's a transformation of an organization that started 22 years ago, flying low cost, point-to-point. We're now rubbing shoulders with the big guys around the world."
Travel times for Albertans

WestJet also hopes the routes will bring up to 185,000 visitors to the Calgary area each year, starting in April 2019 when the international flights are scheduled to start.

Sims said the new routes and schedules will ease trans-Atlantic travel troubles for local people.

"One of the advantages of having a Calgary-based carrier flying out of Calgary is we get to chose our slots that are best for Albertans," he said.

"So we'll be flying these international routes between 7 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the morning."

The company said the three new routes will support 650 full-time jobs and $100 million in economic output.
More Dreamliners on order

The Dreamliners have a range of 14,000 kilometres and are said to be as much as 20 per cent more fuel efficient than WestJet's current fleet of 767s.

WestJet has ordered a total of 10 of the planes, with the first arriving in Calgary in early 2019 and the other two by April, according to the airline. The hubs for those additional planes has not been announced.

The company also has options for an additional 10 Dreamliners to arrive between 2020 and 2024.

Each plane will carry 320 guests in business, premium and economy-class sections.

The newly revealed business class features 16 private pods with lie-flat seats.
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CAL
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by CAL »

wow what a departure from the 737-200 and one class.....
on another note havent airlines been flying between Calgary and Europe for a while?
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Axial Flow
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by Axial Flow »

No more "everyone is first class here at WestJet" line now when people ask about business class seating...
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TheStig
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by TheStig »

Sims said the new routes and schedules will ease trans-Atlantic travel troubles for local people.

"One of the advantages of having a Calgary-based carrier flying out of Calgary is we get to chose our slots that are best for Albertans," he said.

"So we'll be flying these international routes between 7 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the morning."


I took a look at the website to book airfare. I'm not sure what the CEO is talking about?

YYC-LGW departs at 1820
YYC-CDG departs at 1920
YYC-DUB departs at 2045

Air Canada's departure to LHR is at 1825, I'm sure Albertans will be very relieved to leave 5 minutes earlier to a destination airport twice the distance away from central London. Westjets' roundtrip airfares for April to June look to be $800-1000, round trip, same as AC, about the same for premium economy and $1000-1500 less for a lie-flat bed.
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cloak
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by cloak »

To some extent that may be true also for better connections, but once the Joint Venture is completed how long before WestJet will have access to Delta's slots and gates at LHR too?
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Rezy
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by Rezy »

Smart decision as they will also be introducing the 3 new fares economy, premium, and business. This will involve, begrudgingly, another seat reconfiguration but will hopefully be the last one for awhile.
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aerobod
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by aerobod »

TheStig wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:13 am Air Canada's departure to LHR is at 1825, I'm sure Albertans will be very relieved to leave 5 minutes earlier to a destination airport twice the distance away from central London. Westjets' roundtrip airfares for April to June look to be $800-1000, round trip, same as AC, about the same for premium economy and $1000-1500 less for a lie-flat bed.
From a business traveller perspective, the major business areas of London are now centred around Canary Wharf, the travel time from LHR to Paddington is 15 mins less than LGW to Victoria, but the fastest way to get from the hub stations to Canary Wharf most of the time is via the Tube, travel time from Paddington to Canary Wharf is 18 mins longer than from Victoria to Canary Wharf.

The Economy ticket prices are well established from 767 operations, so I wouldn't expect much change there, the lie flat bed prices will adjust to the market over time, but they need to stay about 5x the price of the standard economy fare to be profitable.
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land3
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by land3 »

"So we'll be flying these international routes between 7 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the morning."

Hmmm....let’s see:

Let’s say sked departure out of YYC for London is 0800.

0800 plus 9 hours enroute puts you into London around midnight. By the time your guests get their bags and clear customs, it’s pushing 2AM.

Does anyone see a problem with this ?
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goingnowherefast
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by goingnowherefast »

They'll fly super slow to save gas, lol.

Coming back to yyc to should work out better, no?
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aerobod
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by aerobod »

On the 7am to 10am subject - all press quotes are highly accurate, aren’t they?
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fish4life
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by fish4life »

I’d Imagine that is the arrival time
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eliteair
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Re: WestJet "Announces" Dreamliners base and first routes

Post by eliteair »

"So we'll be flying these international routes between 7 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the morning."

It's 7 - 10 PM not AM.
And it's not the arrival times as these flights arrive after 11 AM
I'm guessing whoever wrote the article may have got confused with tickets going on sale at 10 o'clock that morning.
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