Calgary International Airport - New Terminal, Runway, Control Tower

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

WestJet announces winter services from Calgary to:

-Panama City 4x weekly
-Guadalajara 2x weekly
-Tepic 1x weekly

Mexico City also goes year-round and operated 4x weekly over the winter.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...re-sun-destina

I believe the Panama City flight will be the longest route WS will operate with the 737, a little farther than the current Iceland flight.

Calgary to Veradero...thats what I'm talking about.

[Incogneto]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

WestJet announces winter services from Calgary to:

-Panama City 4x weekly
-Guadalajara 2x weekly
-Tepic 1x weekly

Mexico City also goes year-round and operated 4x weekly over the winter.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...re-sun-destina

I believe the Panama City flight will be the longest route WS will operate with the 737, a little farther than the current Iceland flight.

Panama City --> Bocas Del Toro. Get there, relax. Pure heaven.

[Bigtime]

WestJet and CAE sign contract to bring world-class aviation professional training facility to Calgary

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...-aviation-prof

WestJet and CAE announced today the signing of a 15-year training agreement under which CAE will establish the Alberta Training Centre of Excellence (the Centre) for Aviation and Aerospace—a cutting-edge aviation training facility in Calgary, subject to customary contingencies. Slated to open in 2028, the 126,000 square foot facility will house eight full-flight simulators, with capacity for expansion, alongside cabin trainers and state of the art digital learning tools.

[KelVarnsen]

Gives them more practice for TNCM landings then

[Bigtime]

lol, too soon!

[bizaro86]

Westjet bought a ton of planes from Boeing. Mostly 737 Max but there are also 7 Dreamliners (plus 4 options). That means more long haul expansion. I'm hoping for Hong Kong, Dubai, and Amsterdam, although I wouldn't be surprised to see London increase in frequency especially in the summer if they can get slots. Somewhere in South America or Auckland would also be amazing, although I think quite a bit less likely. If they can ever overfly Russia again I'd think India might be possible as well.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...er-with-boeing

[Bigtime]

I believe Dubai and Auckland would be load restricted due to YYC's elevation. I think HKG would be good though.

[surferguy]

Fine - give me direct to Rarotonga then, make Hawaii complete flyover country.

[Fuzz]

I think it would be less likely they'd do Amsterdam, given their code share with KLM. Hong Kong might be the same situation.

[getbak]

I'd welcome a flight to New Zealand or Australia (maybe Brisbane rather than Sydney) if they could make it work.

[btimbit]

I'm actually wondering if they start doing long haul out of Vancouver and Edmonton again rather than basing all 14 in Calgary

[Bigtime]

Boo to Edmonton, they get NOTHING. Build that HSR between Calgary and Edmonton and put more nails in Leduc International airport.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Boo to Edmonton, they get NOTHING. Build that HSR between Calgary and Edmonton and put more nails in Leduc International airport.

Yeah. High speed rail from Edmonton to YYC would be a huge boon for the hub here, and we'd probably get a bunch of new destinations.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I believe Dubai and Auckland would be load restricted due to YYC's elevation. I think HKG would be good though.

They must have thought Dubai was plausible at one point, because they applied for (and were granted) slots there a few years ago.

I wonder if that's one where the weather here (ie, mostly cold) would be enough to allow for commercial payloads? I'd expect that to be a more popular destination in the winter anyway, so I could see it starting as winter seasonal anyway, so the expected cold weather in our winters should improve take-off performance and thus payload, I think? Maybe in the summers run it in the morning (Eg SEA-DXB leaves at like 9:50 AM), could go even earlier so temps were lower for takeoff. Maybe not, and Westjet's 787's must be fairly heavy given how many more seats they put in them than other operators.

Originally Posted by surferguy

Fine - give me direct to Rarotonga then, make Hawaii complete flyover country.

I'd love to see stuff like this. Maybe once a week each to Fiji/French Polynesia during the winter.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I think it would be less likely they'd do Amsterdam, given their code share with KLM. Hong Kong might be the same situation.

They have Amsterdam slots, but they're using them from Halifax right now. I suspect if they can get more they'd prefer people from here fly to AMS on Westjet planes not KLM planes - they don't have a JV with KLM, so they don't get much $ for those tickets right now.

I hope they don't decide to just do London/Paris/Rome/Barcelona from Toronto or Vancouver with these - would love to see more destinations added here.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Boo to Edmonton, they get NOTHING. Build that HSR between Calgary and Edmonton and put more nails in Leduc International airport.

I'm a big fan of your anti-Edmonton passion on this subject.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I'm a big fan of your anti-Edmonton passion on this subject.

It's a win/win for Calgary, we get high speed rail and our airport connectivity can get even stronger. I'm sure there's a way to get WestJet involved with interline tickets on the train portion.

[JD]

A direct flight to Dubai would seem like a dream. When I lived in Abu Dhabi, I'd often connect through a US west coast city and it would be so frustrating flying almost directly over Calgary on the way. Based on the number of Indians that seem to travel back and forth, usually connecting in Europe, I think a Dubai flight from Calgary would do well. At least according to my anecdotal evidence.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by JD

A direct flight to Dubai would seem like a dream. When I lived in Abu Dhabi, I'd often connect through a US west coast city and it would be so frustrating flying almost directly over Calgary on the way. Based on the number of Indians that seem to travel back and forth, usually connecting in Europe, I think a Dubai flight from Calgary would do well. At least according to my anecdotal evidence.

Yeah, I think you'd have a nice mix of people working in O&G in the middle east and VFR traffic to India. It would be winter peak as well, which is helpful given the 787 fleet is in way higher demand in the summer for European flights. With 14 of them they won't have enough demand to Hawaii/Mexico to sop up the extra frames.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Yeah, I think you'd have a nice mix of people working in O&G in the middle east and VFR traffic to India. It would be winter peak as well, which is helpful given the 787 fleet is in way higher demand in the summer for European flights. With 14 of them they won't have enough demand to Hawaii/Mexico to sop up the extra frames.

You think there’s that many O&G people flying to the ME regularily?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Weitz

You think there’s that many O&G people flying to the ME regularily?

I think quite a few of the ones that do fly regularly and in higher classes of service. If they can fill the front of the plane at good yields that helps a lot. I have a couple of former colleagues now working shifts in the Middle East that come back and forth many times per year, but I'm not sure how many people total do that.