Dreamliner fleet lifting Calgary to another level: WestJet CEO
The CEO of WestJet talked up his company’s commitment to its home base of Calgary on Thursday at a special event celebrating the imminent launch of the airline’s new Dreamliner service.
Speaking to reporters and invited guests, who were offered a first glimpse of the company’s first Boeing 787 aircraft before it begins scheduled service to Toronto next week and international service to London- Gatwick April 28, CEO Ed Sims said WestJet chose Calgary as its Dreamliner hub because it believes the market is currently under-served when it comes to wide-body, international flying. He said WestJet’s new Dreamliner service, which will also include flights to Paris and Dublin beginning this spring and summer, will offer Calgarians more convenient departure, arrival and connection times than any other airline.
“Calgary has typically had to fit into schedules designed around other airlines’ home bases,” Sims said. “Our evening flight times are designed to suit Calgarians, first and foremost. The rest of the world can fit around us.”
WestJet — which will take delivery
Our evening flight times are designed to suit Calgarians, first and foremost. The rest of the world can fit around us.
of its second and third Dreamliners in February and March — will take possession of a total of 10 787s by 2021, with an option to buy 10 more. Hub locations and routes for the remaining seven aircraft have not yet been announced.
According to the airline, its international scheduled service between Calgary and London-Gatwick, Paris and Dublin will support 650 full-time jobs and $100 million in total economic output. The three new flights from the U.K. and Western Europe are expected to eventually bring as many as 185,000 visitors to Calgary on a yearly basis.
“These aircraft are for you, Calgary,” Sims said.
WestJet’s decision to make Calgary the home base for its Dreamliner service cannot be underestimated, said Rick Erickson, a Calgary-based independent aviation analyst.
“This is going to translate into tens of millions of dollars of economic activity that’s going to occur in our city that wouldn’t otherwise occur,” Erickson said. “We will have new passengers coming and going from all of these new international destinations this aircraft is capable of reaching.”
Erickson said WestJet’s decision to move into the wide-body international space is an “aggressive” one, and he acknowledged that some industry watchers have questioned if the airline is trying to grow too big, too fast. But he said the domestic market in Canada is simply too small for WestJet to continue with the status quo.
“I know some of the analysts were sort of naysayers about what was going on but, really, there comes a time and a place where if you want to grow the airline, you don’t have a choice,” Erickson said.