arf04

My guess is YYC. I don't see any advantage to YHZ. It's too far east to take advantage of the network strength. YWG would be a possibility if feed from other cities is a primary strategy.

radnub

I too think it will be YYC. It has to be doesn't it? YYZ is obviously another option but YYC is Westjet's home base! Most western cities could filter through through there too. (Could it be YEG?!)

YHZ was more a geographical decision due to the 737s' range no? The 767s eliminate that issue.

keitherson

Fair enough.. good on the transparency, but I don't know if any other airline would admit to the customer that they're getting a crappier product than they paid for.

WestJet

Great discussion! Let's keep reading those ideas!

*grabs popcorn*

Full details will be announced in the summer, so you've got plenty of time to submit your guesses.

Cheers,
Darren

Symmetre

I would also think YYC would be a prime candidate for a direct TATL route given that it is home base and the primary western hub. That said, I doubt anyone from east of Winnipeg would be willing to accept YYC as a connection on a flight to Europe, which would rule out a lot of potential passengers. To be successful, flights will probably have to originate from airports in both eastern and western Canada.

YYZ is the logical eastern choice, even though it already has a ton of head-to-head competition on direct UK routes ... BA has two flights a day in summer, AC has three, I believe, and I'm not sure about Transat. There's clearly no shortage of demand, and I believe Westjet could successfully compete there just as it has on YYZ-YUL and YYZ-YOW routes that were once exclusively AC's. Especially if they should happen to * cough cough * join an alliance * cough cough * and be able to milk that BA feeder traffic for domestic connections.

YOW or YUL could also work given that both have good feeder connections to other points in eastern Canada, but YYZ would seem to make the most sense.

Heffeh41

Could possibly be a YYC-YYZ-LGW segment, like YYZ-YYT-DUB, (direct on same plane.)

tcook052

I would doubt it as that takes away the advantages of a widebody aircraft since pax could be flown into YYZ on narrowbody planes.

I could see YYZ, YWG and YEG getting routes.

CanuckFlyHigh

If it isnt direct from YYC, I'm not interested. But that's just me.

Altaflyer

AC service to LHR from YEG is waining. If they stop their service over the winter I suspect they may not return and if they do then they may have WS to deal with. There is enough traffic from YEG to London, especially in summer for WS to fly 3 days per week, more if AC exits. WS also has far more service here to feed connecting traffic. YYC seems like a natural and I suspect YYZ will get the flights. Can't see YWG as doubt anyone would want to connect there from the west and I doubt the city has enough O/D traffic, nor the demographics for flights unless perhaps a weekly operation.

tcook052

I'd be quite happy to see YEG get a route but YWG was a guess based on what WS was saying in this article:

WestJet has not yet decided which Canadian cities it will fly out of but an executive hinted that it’s looking at smaller markets.

“If you go from some smaller centres — let’s say the fourth through the seventh or eighth largest cities in Canada — you would get a big stimulation factor from having a non-stop flight to London,” Bob Cummings, WestJet’s executive vice-president for commercial operations, said in an interview. “We’ve always had good success with the smaller centres.”

sofasurfer

YHM certainly has the runway capacity - and from a purely selfish perspective, I'd be all over this like a rash.

FlyGlobespan were the last outfit to try this - but wet-leasing to non-UK operations, plus deliberatey-opaque one-stop itins in the UK, plus metal that became nicknamed "fireball one / two" probably didn't help

There might some potential to do a one-stop on the Canadian side at YHM, and then another point west that could perhaps even pick up some additional traffic on the way out west... wide-body YHM-YVR... I can dream..!

Hell, even a service heading from out west that gets in to YHM in the mid-late evening would be attractive. The one that lands at 0045 isn't something I'm looking forward to next week, when I get back from my trip out west

Iam787

I'd be interested to hear why? YEG already his direct on AC, and Icelandair has excellent connections and timing to the UK and Europe, and KLM also recently started to AMS. The market in YEG is fairly tight with the amount of competition and smaller population area, so I would be surprised to see WestJet go to YEG.

YVR Cockroach

Probably a long time in coming but I imagine the latter is a major corporate client route (like AMS-IAH with a BBJ is/was).

radnub

Will Westjet have all their 767s (four) by next spring? If so wouldn't they pull the ones being used for YYC-HNL this winter to provide European service in the spring? This would allow one destination in the West one destination in the East to be serviced.

HangTen

WJ brings 130+ tails of domestic and in some cases, international feed to the table.

Places like PHX, with 4m people in the metro population, have one n/s flight a day to the UK. One stop over YYC or YYZ is just as good as Charlotte, Atlanta or the U.S. NE.

Transat, Zoom, C3 and the UK charter operators had / have no feed at either end. They rely / relied on pure O&D.

Apples and oranges.