WestJet Winter Enhancements

[TheGreatestX]

United States
Las Vegas 15 flights per week, third daily flight on Saturdays. Up one from last year.

Los Angeles 7 flights per week. Same as last year.

Phoenix 9 flights per week, second daily flight on Thursdays and Sundays. Up two from last year.

Palm Springs 7 flights per week. Larger aircraft than last year, 737-800 instead of 737-700.

Orlando 1 flight per week, on Saturdays. Same as last year.

Maui (details to be announced later)

Mexico
Cancun 3 flights per week, on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Same as last year.

Puerto Vallarta 2 flights per week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Same as last year.

Cabo San Lucas 1 flight per week, on Mondays. Same as last year.

Mazatlan 1 flight per week, on Saturdays. Same as last year.

Caribbean
Montego Bay 1 flight per week, on Fridays. Same as last year.

Here is the kicker, Vancouver and Calgary both lost their non-stops to Montego Bay while we retained ours. Overall, no reductions from Edmonton, only improvements!

[Hilman]

I have heard that the Maui flight will be offered for a longer period as last year it was only for 2 months. Should bump up the transborder numbers a little which have been on fire lately.

[JustYeggin]

It would be nice if WestJet runs a weekly to FLL during the winter and cater to the cruise-ship bound passengers.

But nice to see the additional flights to PHX and LAS nonetheless.

[LO 044]

A comparison of WestJet flight increases between YEG (4 flights per week) and YYC (23 flights per week):

Capacity/Frequency Increase (based on comparison of W10 vs W11):
Calgary – Cancun Increase from 6 weekly in W10 to 8 weekly in W11
Calgary – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 17 weekly
Calgary – Palm Springs Increase from 9 to 14 weekly
Calgary – Phoenix Increase from 14 to 16 weekly
Calgary – Puerto Vallarta Increase from 5 to 7 weekly
Calgary – San Diego Increase from 3 weekly to 4 weekly (Winter operation changes)
Calgary – San Jose/Los Cabos Increase from 4 to 5 weekly
Calgary – Montreal Winter service increase from 1 to 2 Daily

Edmonton – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 15 weekly
Edmonton – Palm Springs Boeing 737-800 replace -700 in W10, Daily
Edmonton – Phoenix Increase from 7 to 10 weekly

But at least we'll have more connecting opportunities in YYC:
Edmonton – Calgary Increase from 5 to 7 Daily

http://airlineroute.net/2011/07/21/ws-w11/

[Hilman]

At least we have Air Canada picking up the slack with their stellar 2 flights a week (1 to Cancun, 1 to Cozumel, 0 to the whole USA and a cancellation of the Montego Bay flight).

[JustYeggin]

Originally Posted by LO 044

A comparison of WestJet flight increases between YEG (4 flights per week) and YYC (23 flights per week):

Capacity/Frequency Increase (based on comparison of W10 vs W11):
Calgary – Cancun Increase from 6 weekly in W10 to 8 weekly in W11
Calgary – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 17 weekly
Calgary – Palm Springs Increase from 9 to 14 weekly
Calgary – Phoenix Increase from 14 to 16 weekly
Calgary – Puerto Vallarta Increase from 5 to 7 weekly
Calgary – San Diego Increase from 3 weekly to 4 weekly (Winter operation changes)
Calgary – San Jose/Los Cabos Increase from 4 to 5 weekly
Calgary – Montreal Winter service increase from 1 to 2 Daily

Edmonton – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 15 weekly
Edmonton – Palm Springs Boeing 737-800 replace -700 in W10, Daily
Edmonton – Phoenix Increase from 7 to 10 weekly

But at least we'll have more connecting opportunities in YYC:
Edmonton – Calgary Increase from 5 to 7 Daily

http://airlineroute.net/2011/07/21/ws-w11/

and WJ is adding 2 dailies to YYC...I wonder why!!!

Bottom line is this, unless you have an Edmonton based airline, you will always get mediocre service out of YEG. Sad but true!!!!

[TheGreatestX]

Originally Posted by LO 044

A comparison of WestJet flight increases between YEG (4 flights per week) and YYC (23 flights per week):

Capacity/Frequency Increase (based on comparison of W10 vs W11):
Calgary – Cancun Increase from 6 weekly in W10 to 8 weekly in W11
Calgary – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 17 weekly
Calgary – Palm Springs Increase from 9 to 14 weekly
Calgary – Phoenix Increase from 14 to 16 weekly
Calgary – Puerto Vallarta Increase from 5 to 7 weekly
Calgary – San Diego Increase from 3 weekly to 4 weekly (Winter operation changes)
Calgary – San Jose/Los Cabos Increase from 4 to 5 weekly
Calgary – Montreal Winter service increase from 1 to 2 Daily

Edmonton – Las Vegas Increase from 14 to 15 weekly
Edmonton – Palm Springs Boeing 737-800 replace -700 in W10, Daily
Edmonton – Phoenix Increase from 7 to 10 weekly

But at least we'll have more connecting opportunities in YYC:
Edmonton – Calgary Increase from 5 to 7 Daily

http://airlineroute.net/2011/07/21/ws-w11/

But look at those destinations from Calgary. There is no need to connect in YYC as we already have non-stop service to all of them, except for San Diego.

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by Hilman

At least we have Air Canada picking up the slack with their stellar 2 flights a week (1 to Cancun, 1 to Cozumel, 0 to the whole USA and a cancellation of the Montego Bay flight).

I never discount the fact that AC gives us crap service but your notion is alway that WestJet is SO much better. I disagree. And as i said before, the more that WestJet grows the more they will service YEG like AC does, through Calgary and Toronto.

And you're still bringing up the argument about how AC metal doesn't fly to the US? Who cares, they codeshare with United and others. If that's your argument than why doesn't WestJet fly the following routes with WestJet aircraft? Oh right, they codeshare with American.

Calgary – Dallas
Toronto – Chicago
Toronto – Dallas
Toronto – Los Angeles
Vancouver – Dallas

[Hilman]

But they are so much better, they fly to numerous cities in the US versus AC's ZERO and numerous Caribbean destination whereas AC flies once a week to Cancun and once to Cozumel. This is the very definition of being better, how you defend AC over WJ is beyond me.

So AC code shares to the US, big freaking deal. They are just riding the coat tails of other airlines that actually put the metal, crews, etc in the air.

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by Hilman

But they are so much better, they fly to numerous cities in the US versus AC's ZERO and numerous Caribbean destination whereas AC flies once a week to Cancun and once to Cozumel. This is the very definition of being better, how you defend AC over WJ is beyond me.

So AC code shares to the US, big freaking deal. They are just riding the coat tails of other airlines that actually put the metal, crews, etc in the air.

You mean like when WestJet rides the coat tails of American, KLM, British Airways and Cathay Pacific right?

And where exactly did i defend AC in my last two posts? Unless you consider "AC gives us crap service" to be a compliment.

[Hilman]

Every time WJ is brought up, you bash them (yet never bash AC's horrible flights). WJ may have code sharing but one minor detail you keep forgetting is, they actually fly nonstop to airports other than YVR, YYC and YYZ using their own metal and crews. AC has zero routes and zero risk with YEG, ergo WJ IS better for Edmontonians.

[TheGreatestX]

Originally Posted by LO 044

I never discount the fact that AC gives us crap service but your notion is alway that WestJet is SO much better

How is WestJet NOT better than Air Canada?

WestJet flies non-stop to 28 destinations. Air Canada flies to 14.

WestJet has 50.8% of market share at YEG. Air Canada has 34.2%.

Yes Air Canada code shares, but it's very easy to put your code on someone else's flight. WestJet on the otherhand operates the codeshare flight out of Edmonton (AA5153 YEG-LAX) which lets us use LAX to connect to the world instead of Calgary or Toronto.

Two weeks ago I flew from Taipei to Edmonton and connected in LAX (American to WestJet), I got my boarding passes and checked my luggage in Taiwan and had no hassle in LA. You can't even book a flight from Taipei to Edmonton on Air Canada...

[LO 044]

Hilman you obviously don't read enough of my posts then becasue i always have said how AC messed up giving us a LHR flight instead of a FRA flight or timing it so connections at LHR are more challenging to some places then they need to be.

GreatestX i can throw you out examples of places WestJet or their partners cannot connect to. You can't even book the international flights on the WestJet website you have to go to American Airlines website. Not sure why that would be such a hassle.

[Hilman]

I like Westjet and understand they aren't the perfect company but they at least try new routes which costs them money and has a lot of risk. AC flies considerably less places from YEG and leech off of other airlines with code sharing, assuming ZERO percent of the risk. This is my issue, you seem to knock WJ every chance you get whilst AC gets a free ride most of the time (just like code sharing lol). Until AC actually gives us a reason to fly them, the only route I will use with them is LHR.

[rime ice]

Codesharing is not leeching it is sound Airline planning and gives each company economies of scale they would not have flying the route solo.

I might remind you all the great Airlines of the world codeshare BA/AA/KL/DL/EK/JAL/SK/SAS i could go on... all these Airlines can't be wrong. Airlines like any other business are in it to make money, not please every community on the planet. Painful to accept but it remains a fact.

[Hilman]

It is leeching when you provide zero routes and expect everyone else to risk their money to fly nonstop routes. They do as little as possible for Edmonton and it shows with 3 routes and 9 flights a week that leave Canada, pretty pathetic for a booming city of 1.1 million.

[TheGreatestX]

Originally Posted by rime ice

Codesharing is not leeching it is sound Airline planning and gives each company economies of scale they would not have flying the route solo.

I might remind you all the great Airlines of the world codeshare BA/AA/KL/DL/EK/JAL/SK/SAS i could go on... all these Airlines can't be wrong. Airlines like any other business are in it to make money, not please every community on the planet. Painful to accept but it remains a fact.

The original purpose of codesharing was so an airline could extend its reach to smaller cities in another country. For example, AC flies to Sao Paulo, and then would codeshare to smaller Brazilian cities.

The problem here, is that AC codeshares on flights from a major Canadian city (YEG), when it should be the airline operating those routes.

[LO 044]

Can't you say the same thing about WestJet where they codeshare on American Airlines flights that depart Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver? Why does WestJet need American to fly from Calgary to Dallas. Why doesn't WestJet fly to Dallas and let American carry people further?

If you guys don't like to fly United to Chicago and Denver, you are free to fly WestJet to Toronto or Los Angeles and connect on American from there. Or WestJet could compete on routes to ORD, MSP, SEA, DEN and IAD. I wouldn't hesitate flying on WestJet's 737 than Horizon's DH8 on the YEG-SEA run.

[McBoo]

Too fun to leave alone.

Reasons airlines go bankrupt:

Went to the Air Canada website (http://www.aircanada.com/en/home.html) to see if AC was still flying YYC-NRT.

And, if you check, apparently not, at least on the dates I selected.

Same dates, YEG-NRT - I can fly via guess what, YYC.

Same dates, YVR-NRT - I can fly via YYC for half the cost of non-stop YVR-NRT.

So, here's the deal: WJ, headquartered in Calgary at least tries to provide Edmonton with a level of service the market would indicate it can support.

AC, flying thousands of empty seats out of YYC day-after-day (1/2 price YVR to NRT via YYC tells me something about the yield out of Calgary), tries to solve this problem by slashing prices and flying more and more puddle jumpers from YEG-YYC to connect to flights onward from there.

Meantime, WJ, seeing how badly AC serves YEG, moves in to fill the void.

Brilliant.

Like I said, why airlines go bankrupt.

[thegongshow]

Originally Posted by LO 044

Can't you say the same thing about WestJet where they codeshare on American Airlines flights that depart Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver? Why does WestJet need American to fly from Calgary to Dallas. Why doesn't WestJet fly to Dallas and let American carry people further?

If you guys don't like to fly United to Chicago and Denver, you are free to fly WestJet to Toronto or Los Angeles and connect on American from there. Or WestJet could compete on routes to ORD, MSP, SEA, DEN and IAD. I wouldn't hesitate flying on WestJet's 737 than Horizon's DH8 on the YEG-SEA run.

Horizon/Alaska doesn't fly the DH8. They fly the Q400

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/tra...leet/q400.aspx

Quite a bit different aircraft.

[McBoo]

Yes, but AC flies the DH8 and DH3

All day to YYC

Where you can walk for miles for all AC cares ... (or YYC)