WestJet is making a major enlargement of its routes between Alberta’s capital and locations within the US and Canada, including a flight crew hub within the metropolis for the primary time.
WestJet provides 150-person crew hub in Edmonton
Till now, the airline had three crew bases in Canada: Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
“We’re now including a fourth one, which mainly exhibits how vital Edmonton is to WestJet,” WestJet Group CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech stated.
“This permits us to create a extra dependable, extra steady community as a result of crews do not must commute.
“They mainly begin and finish the day in Edmonton and that creates work for Edmonton, which can also be good.”
Hoensbroech stated to start out, by Might of this 12 months, the airline can have added 150 crew positions at Edmonton Worldwide Airport: 50 pilots and 100 in-flight cabin crew.
“We’re right here to remain and we’re right here to develop.
“We would not be establishing a crew base if our ambition wasn’t to develop past what we’re at the moment planning for the summer season.”
Two years after orders for 15 Boeing 737 Max planes have been canceled amid an industry-wide downturn in aviation, Hoensbroech stated Monday that WestJet now has orders from Boeing for 65 of the planes and the choice to purchase 22 extra over the following 5 years. purchase.
“That is lots of capability to deploy and the truth that we have arrange a crew base right here in Edmonton means there’s extra to come back,” Hoensbroech stated.
“Clearly, offered the enlargement we do is worthwhile, which in fact we anticipate it to be.”
2 new Edmonton-US routes, extra home flights this summer season
The Calgary-based airline stated service from Edmonton Worldwide Airport will improve by practically 50 % this summer season, in comparison with 2022.
“That is the biggest year-over-year development we have had anyplace in Canada,” Hoensbroech stated, noting their common development is 30 % throughout the nation.
“It is very, essential.”
WestJet held a significant information convention in downtown Edmonton to announce the summer season schedule and crew hub, saying it’s including new nonstop service from YEG to Minneapolis and Seattle.
These mid-morning fights will go away Edmonton 5 occasions every week. Flights to Seattle start Might 19, and the path to Minneapolis begins June 2.
Westjet pronounces new flights and a crew hub for Edmonton Worldwide Airport on Monday, February 13, 2023.
International Information
WestJet additionally introduced new routes to London, Ont., Moncton, NB (each twice weekly) and Charlottetown (as soon as weekly) and resumed nonstop service to Ottawa (six weekly) and Montreal (twice weekly) , in addition to twice-weekly flights to Nanaimo (year-round) and Penticton, BC
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The resumed flights final operated from Edmonton in 2021. Every route has totally different dates to start out again, from late April to early July.
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi stated town’s airport has not all the time obtained its fair proportion of direct flights up to now, including that the eight new routes introduced Monday will serve companies and households nicely.
“It permits companies from totally different cities to attach with Edmonton, Edmonton companies to attach with different cities and waste much less time,” Sohi stated. “It additionally permits households to spend extra time collectively as an alternative of simply spending time on the airport.
“This renewed dedication actually speaks to that want.”
A number of the WestJet flights are being transformed from routes flown by its ultra-low-cost subsidiary Swoop.
“Some routes are new, some routes are restored routes that we flew earlier than the pandemic, and a few have been served by Swoop and they’re now served by Westjet,” Hoensbroech stated.
“We now have now determined that we are going to do extra WestJet out of Edmonton, which meets the wants of the market.”
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General, WestJet stated it would serve 21 home and 4 cross-border locations from Alberta’s capital this summer season.
Edmonton Worldwide Airport President and CEO Myron Keehn stated this makes the airline the biggest airline working out of YEG.
He stated come this summer season, there can be greater than 100 each day WestJet flights.
“That is important, in comparison with, in case you return two years, we had perhaps 5 flights a day,” Keehn stated, referring to when worldwide border closures shut down the airline {industry} on the top of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having 100 flights a day out and in of Edmonton in the summertime (is) important. Connectivity in our area is vital – vital so that you can go to household and mates, vital for you to have the ability to join your online business and transfer freight and items and to draw funding.”
Not the entire routes will function year-round: WestJet stated it operates extra trans-Canada flights in the summertime, and extra routes to hotter southern locations within the winter.
The airline stated Monday’s announcement is the only largest enlargement of WestJet’s community serving Edmonton in historical past and the airport famous that it does not simply profit the folks filling the seats.
“Each certainly one of these flights additionally has cargo within the underbelly,” Keehn stated.
“So truly these flights are nice for tourism – however they’re additionally nice from a enterprise perspective.”
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Final summer season, WestJet refocused its routes and shifted sources to develop its presence in Western Canada.
The airline stated Monday the brand new Edmonton routes additional strengthen its east-to-west connectivity.
Westjet, pilots nonetheless engaged on new collective settlement
Information of the enlargement comes because the airline and the union representing its pilots stay at an deadlock over contract talks.
The pilots’ first union contract, which expired on the finish of 2022, was the results of an arbitration settlement reached in 2018.
The WestJet Grasp Government Board, represented by the Air Line Pilots Affiliation, Worldwide (ALPA), stated final week it had filed a request for conciliation with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
ALPA represents roughly 1,800 pilots at WestJet and Swoop.
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Hoensbroech stated on Monday that the 2 events have been negotiating because the starting of September 2022 and asking for a state conciliator will not be uncommon.
“We now have come to some extent the place we agree on some, however we additionally differ on many different factors. I feel that is a reasonably regular factor within the negotiation course of.”
As soon as a conciliation officer is appointed earlier than the tip of February, they’ll work with the events for 60 days to succeed in an settlement.
If each events stay deadlocked after this era, a 21-day cooling-off interval begins earlier than the events can think about different alternate options, together with a strike or lockout.
“In fact, it needs to be an settlement that is smart for our valued pilots, but additionally for the competitiveness of our firm,” Hoensbroech stated.
Calgary-based WestJet launched in 1996 with three plane, 250 staff and 5 locations.
It now has greater than 180 plane, 14,000 staff and greater than 110 locations in 24 international locations.
– with recordsdata from The Canadian Press
