Oh okay, I must've missed that. I saw that they are advertising for summer flights to Seoul, I didn't know in place of the Athens plan.
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- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
YYCguy
Active Member
Congratulations on the job! Maybe you will be one of my pilots one day!It'll be interesting to see how much Lynx's absence affects numbers.
But I think this summer will be our busiest ever, i'm expecting July and August to be both over 2 million.
I'll be starting my first airline pilot job in Alberta this summer, hopefully I can't contribute to the numbers!
YYCguy
Active Member
I didn’t know that Athens had even been considered!
There was mention of Westjet going direct to Athens a while back. I think it was originally mentioned over at SSP, but it mentioned here as a rumor in this post.
Athens would be cool, but it's nice to have a second Asian destination, especially with there already being 8 European destination direct from YYC.
Golfing guy
Active Member
I would think if WJ purchases more 787’s they would probably add Athens. Like Rome &, Barcelona, Athens has a lot of cruise ship passengers. That’s a big if though. The more 87’s WJ has then they have to find uses for them in the winter months.
darwink
Senior Member
AC has been using theirs on many domestic turns this winter. Even had a YVR-YOW widebody! (the 787 went mechanical then they had to sub one of 777s kept for recovery ops in its place).
WJ could use extra frames to increase the rate of painting and interior refit over the winter. One could dream.
trtcttc
Active Member
With the expected shortage of narrowbodies and uncertain timing of the 737 Max 10, wonder if they switch some to Max 9 or get some 787 and deploy them on heavy routes like YYC-YYZ to free up the 737.
YYCguy
Active Member
If they did add additional 787s wouldn’t there be potential opportunities in the winter to places like Australia/New Zealand/Fiji etc?
Golfing guy
Active Member
Is the market (YVR) already served quite heavily already. With AC, Qantas and Air New Zealand already flying to western Canada.
Westjet does have its own huge feed that would help it fill the flights. The negative is that you would need 2 Aircraft to fly down there daily.
YYCguy
Active Member
I was thinking from YYC (not served) more than from YVR (served well).
During the winter they might be able to do 787 run from YYC to Puerta Vallarta and Cancun. They do 2 x 737 runs a day (or most days) to those locations during the winter. If I'm not mistaken Sunwing also goes from Calgary to PV.
darwink
Senior Member
That leaves 737s to use. Sunwing used to or still does the fleet swap with European carriers. Perhaps they can stop that and better use surplus WJ metal and crews instead in the winter.
Easiest may be going year round to Tokyo. AC used to do it. Might not get the yields but I imagine it used to pay for its fuel and crew. Perhaps ICN too.
trtcttc
Active Member
They need better airline partnerships before they do that. AC is able to because they have connectivity through ANA, EVA, SIA, Thai to connect through Asia to more popular winter destinations. WJ long haul strategy seems to be to pool all the non-YVR/YYZ traffic that wants to go to NRT or ICN, but not connecting to another destination in Asia. Searching flights from YYC to SE Asia, East Asia on a day WJ flies direct to NRT, most results are AC, UA or Asian carriers. Even flights with a WJ leg is only connecting YYC-YVR.
I don't know the economics of airline flights, but wouldn't flying one 787 to PV be a lot better economically than two 737s? If there are extra 737s they could always be sold or leased to another airline. Like I say, I'm not an expert, and I'm sure Westjet has thought about more than I have.
darwink
Senior Member
Any time a plane isn't moving, it isn't making money, and we're speculating about adding 787s not a choice between adding 787s or two 737s. .
IMO 787s really degrade the passenger experience in PVR. Maybe the airport will finally upgrade itself enough? But I doubt it.