WESTJET TO LAUNCH NONSTOP SERVICE FROM CALGARY TO EUROPE.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. plans to launch non-stop service from Calgary to Dublin, Paris and London’s Gatwick Airport using its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, challenging Air Canada with transatlantic flights that target business passengers and the jet set.
“It’s really important for us to be able to attract what I would call bucket-list travellers, premium leisure travellers and, indeed, a share of business corporate travellers,” WestJet chief executive Ed Sims said.
The airline aims to invest roughly $4 billion in new airplanes over the next six or seven years, including 10 Dreamliners, Sims said.
The new routes reflect not just a grab for more wouldbe Air Canada passengers, but also an attempt to gin up new travellers.
“We think the markets here are being very underserved, so I think there’s an opportunity to attract a new generation of travellers,” Sims said.
“But of course, for outbound Canadians it now gives them a choice.”
The wide-body 320-seat Dreamliners include 16 lieflat seats in a business cabin as well as 24 premium economy seats, as WestJet continues to recast itself as a large intercontinental carrier.
“It’s a real evolution from WestJet being a clone of Southwest (Airlines) to becoming more and more similar in some ways to Air Canada — but trying to differentiate themselves,” said Karl Moore, an aviation expert at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management.
WestJet is battling with Air Canada on a number of fronts. Its ultra-low-cost Swoop airline recently launched flights to the U.S., in competition with Air Canada’s six-year-old Rouge unit.
On top of a long-range fleet that still dwarfs WestJet’s, Air Canada’s recent deal at the head of a consortium to buy the Aeroplan reward program from Aimia Inc. represents another potential advantage WestJet aims to reduce.
WestJet announced Wednesday it will top up its WestJet Rewards program with a new platinum tier later this year.
The Dreamliner will fly daily between Calgary and Gatwick, four times a week to and from Paris and three times a week to and from Dublin.