Westjet Transatlantic
 

Westjet (WS) has announced its' initial TATL service, St John's NL (YYT) to Dublin reland (DUB) seasonal daily with 737s (not sure if -700s or -800s). Service to operate IIRC June to October.

Flight will originate in Toronto (YYZ) transit YYT, then onward to DUB.
I think this says a couple of things:
- WS has pretty nearly maxed out 737 flying in North America. Not many more places to go;
- they are being very cautious for their initial service, as AC also do seasonal daily YYZ-DUB n/s with 763s. If this doesn't work out, economic penalty won't be big. If it does work, then you might see MAN, BHX, and either GLA or EDI next year.
- also if this works, it probably advances an order for 788s or 789s, which would open up all of Europe plus South America.

Interesting times for WS.

Canada is a massive market from UK, 30 plus routes a day of Heathrow.

Even with Rouge and Transat, a significant % of Heathrow pax, are to /from UK major Cities North of Birmingham.

ie Manchester Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and with Manchester Airport sat in the middle there are rich pickings to be had.....

Air Lingus are starting up a direct Dublin flight from Toronto next February
(757s I believe).
Will be interesting to see if this route works for Westjet in competition.

Out of interest, who are Westjet's European codeshare partners that would provide connections from Dublin?

To my knowledge, WS European codeshare partners are BA and AF/KL. Interline partners include AY, AZ, FI (Icelandair), and DE (Condor).

Most of WS codeshare partners are either US-based or Asia.

FI start 4x weekly to YEG (Edmonton) in March with 757s, so a tie up option there.

Interesting times indeed and I echo the sentiments about the north of London area being VERY poorly served, especially since AC gave up on the MAN-YYZ 763 service some years back. (Did AC REALLY think people would just meekly switch to their LHR 'service'????? No-one in their right mind wants to transit via LHR and routinely miss 2+ hour connections! Me - I immediately switched to KLM for MAN-AMS-YYZ flights. ;)

Does anyone have the ETOPS data on the NG 737s? Not sure a stop at St Johns is the way to go... but is probably a very sensible way to test the water for now.

GO FOR IT, WESTJET!!!!! :ok: :ok: :ok:

ER340790-

"No-one in their right mind wants to transit via LHR and routinely miss 2+ hour connections!"

Concur. I HATE going through LHR, esp. if I have to change terminals. Just a b*tch of an airport for lots of connections.

YYT is a necessary evil on the route for the 737Ng, it doesn't quite have the legs from YYZ.

Sales are showing very strong - apparently the quickest selling launch in WJ history - so despite the stop in YYT the market is responding.

Most of the pax on this flight will be from Eastern Canada or those willing to save a bunch by going YYZ-YYT then over the pond instead of paying for the direct service from YYZ

A couple changes will be required for the 37s... including a extra digit added to the radio stacks ( the european thing) as well starting next year all aircraft will require the Automated Position Report System.. CPDL I think its called.

It is indeed an interesting time and with the CEO in Dubai this week - perhaps a sign of things to come.

WJP

It's CPDLC.. And it's bliss..

Very strong take up and support from YYT. Kicking myself for not pulling the trigger when I could have got the family across the pond for $1500 next summer! (2 adults, 2 kids).

SLF question.....AC flies the A319 ETOPS from YYT-LHR. If the B737 is a comparable aircraft, will WJ only have a small % of their fleet ETOPS certified for this run? Or can they use any aircraft. Read elsewhere speculation that the driver for this was cycling aircraft through a maintenance facility in Europe but a bit skeptical of that.

Aer Lingus are indeed starting a 757 service to Toronto in February. Speculation of them sending an A319/20/21 into Halifax next year too.

When Westjet run this service (Summer season) they'll be up against daily Air Canada 767, Aer Lingus 757 and Air Transat A310/A330 direct YYZ-DUB. I wish them well.

Codeshares is interesting. Only major players out of Dublin into Europe are Aer Lingus or Ryanair. BA fly 6 or 7 times to LHR daily, KLM don't fly there because of a codeshare with Aer Lingus, Cityjet (owned by AF) fly to CDG with RJ85's, as well as lo London City and a few others I think

WJAPilot,

What do the fuel reserves look like on the Westbound leg ? I hear that there will flights in and out of YOW - even longer leg.

Westjet to Glasgow
 

I know this question has been asked already, without an answer unfortunately. Have WJ modified a fair proportion of the fleet to allow ETOPS/TATL flights, or just a few?

Quite a few are ETOPS certified as the company does a lot of flying in the Eastern Pacific between Vancouver and the Hawaiian Islands. Only a few have been modified to fly the routes to Ireland and Scotland.