Since WestJet started flying long-haul routes, we’ve seen the airline function worldwide flights departing from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, and St. John’s in some unspecified time in the future or one other.

Instantly following the pandemic, WestJet pursued a method of renewing a large berth of worldwide flights from completely different airports throughout Canada.

Whereas the airline had certainly restored a few of its worldwide routes from varied Canadian cities, it’s going to now double down on its Calgary hub. As of 2023, all of WestJet’s worldwide flights will originate from Calgary.

Let’s have a look at the adjustments and what alternatives they may present you.

Alberta Sure

WestJet’s id is quickly obvious in its identify: it flies jets and it’s based mostly in Western Canada. For the reason that airline’s creation, Calgary has at all times been residence to the airline’s company places of work and the recipient of its best consideration.

The newest announcement impacts all worldwide routes working from airports apart from Calgary, and as of 2023, WestJet will solely function worldwide flights out of its Calgary hub.

Ever for the reason that nice journey rush of 2021–2022, WestJet has been experimenting with flying worldwide routes from elsewhere in Canada, together with from the japanese a part of the nation the place Air Canada dominates the enjoying subject. It’s tough to establish how profitable these routes had been, however the choice to axe them will need to have been made based mostly on enterprise wants. 

The latter a part of 2022 additionally noticed WestJet’s cancellation of plenty of home routes in Jap Canada, a lot to the chagrin of residents of Atlantic provinces who aren’t essentially well-served by airways to start with. 

The corporate seems to be following a “back-to-basics” method by funnelling their whole worldwide community into and out of Calgary. That is particularly advantageous as a result of it means they will promote tickets with single connections from locations that Air Canada doesn’t prioritize for service, equivalent to cities in Saskatchewan, to its home and worldwide community.

Furthermore, WestJet can piggyback off of value-minded travellers who choose to take ultra-low-cost carriers, equivalent to Lynx Air, to Calgary earlier than boarding WestJet flights to their last locations overseas.

As of subsequent yr, WestJet will service plenty of new worldwide routes from Calgary. Between April and Could, WestJet will launch new direct flights from Calgary to Tokyo Narita (NRT), Barcelona (BCN), and Edinburgh (EDI).  

The airline can even proceed to function 5 present routes from Calgary at a better frequency:

• London Heathrow (LHR): Each day
• London Gatwick (LGW): Each day from April 30, 2023
• Paris (CDG): Each day
• Rome (FCO): 5 occasions weekly from April 6, 2023 (seasonal in the course of the summer season)
• Dublin (DUB): 5 occasions weekly from April 30, 2023 (seasonal in the course of the summer season)

This is good news for Western Canadians making an attempt to attenuate the headache of journey occasions and connections, however who want to fly internationally to among the hottest vacationer locations in Western Europe and Japan.

Sadly, WestJet’s direct flights from Calgary to Amsterdam are set to finish on March 24, 2023. Nevertheless, Albertans keen to succeed in the Netherlands can nonetheless depart on a direct flight from Calgary or Edmonton with KLM.

We’ll even be watching intently to see if a few of these seasonal routes get promoted to year-round locations.

A Response or a Refocus?

It’s fascinating that WestJet has made these cuts on the exact second that they did. Proper now, I can see a couple of components at play.

Firstly, these adjustments got here into impact on December 20, 2022. Anybody taking note of the information can see that within the face of file snowstorms and passenger volumes, each Canadian provider is struggling to fulfill the wants of travellers.

In such a tough context, it due to this fact makes some sense for WestJet to concentrate on the acquainted and enhance its operations in Calgary.

Secondly, plainly each new airline, particularly these of the ultra-low-cost selection, has been specializing in getting flights into Calgary. One such provider, Lynx Air, is even headquartered there.

Whereas the current “Alberta Is Calling” marketing campaign run by the Alberta authorities to entice Canadians to maneuver to the province has been fairly profitable, do carriers assume that there are sufficient prospects in Calgary to fill all of their seats? Or have their enterprise analysts drawn conclusions about progress in Alberta the remainder of us can solely speculate about?

For my part, WestJet has seen home ultra-low-cost carriers flying to and from Calgary as a bonus, and one thing that they will make the most of to promote extra tickets abroad as leisure journey to Alberta will increase through the years.

This leads into the final fascinating piece of this pivot, as WestJet’s CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, not too long ago joined the corporate in February 2022.

As the previous CEO of Austrian Airways, Hoensbroech was in a position to lead the airline via the storm of COVID-19 and to proceed to outlive within the face of stiff competitors of European price range opponents, equivalent to Ryanair and Wizz Air.

Given Hoensbroech’s background, this pivot to a concentrate on Calgary appears to align along with his beforehand profitable company methods.

Conclusion

WestJet has discontinued all of its worldwide routes from airports outdoors of Calgary, whereas on the identical time increasing its capability to service abroad locations from Alberta.

Time will inform if this shift pays dividends. Given the rise in site visitors of ultra-low-cost carriers servicing Calgary, and WestJet’s new CEO’s expertise in duelling with such opponents, this back-to-basics method could possibly be extra profitable than its foray into Jap Canada was.

Till subsequent time, go to beautiful Alberta.