WestJet Airlines announced this morning that the first 3 of their 10 new long-distance Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will be offering direct flights between Calgary, Dublin and Paris.
Calgary to London
One of the new Dreamliners will continue to fly on the Calgary to London, England route, arriving at London’s Gatwick Airport. The new routes make WestJet the first Canadian airline to base Dreamliner aircraft out of YYC.
Flights and pricing were made available to the public Wednesday morning with the direct flights to Europe launching on April 28, May 17 and June 1, 2019.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have a range of 14,000 kilometres and are said to be as much as 20 per cent more fuel efficient than WestJet’s current fleet of 767s. Each plane will carry 320 guests in business, premium and economy-class sections. The newly revealed business class features 16 private pods with lie-flat seats.
“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 in an telephone interview from Calgary.
The new routes strive to not only grab hold of would-be Air Canada passengers, but also an attempt to drum 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
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.