[Glenco]

They are buying more Dreamliners, I see one of those being used for a daily London flight out of Edmonton and the others having additional Calgary capacity.

One can only hope but they won’t start delivery until 2029 so it will be at least 5 years until we can expect such a service. I don’t think people are willing to wait that long just in case. We really need this kind service yesterday.

 

[TAS]

They are buying more Dreamliners, I see one of those being used for a daily London flight out of Edmonton and the others having additional Calgary capacity.

Certainly, one WJ international route out of Edmonton is better than none.

Let's also remember a sizeable % of WJ revenues come from Edmonton area residents who have helped WJ be successful by purchasing a lot of seats on their flights - direct from both YEG and YYC.

Here in more detail is the MOU with the province and WJ signed in 2022, outlining WJ's commitments to the province:

 

[TAS]

Certainly, one WJ international route out of Edmonton is better than none.

Let's also remember a sizeable % of WJ revenues come from Edmonton area residents who have helped WJ be successful by purchasing a lot of seats on their flights - direct from both YEG and YYC.

Here in more detail is the MOU with the province and WJ signed in 2022, outlining WJ's commitments to the province:

View attachment 678849

Sorry, in my post above I forgot to include the list of commitments the province asked WJ to agree to regarding increasing YEG's airport passenger totals by 2028 and how many additional aircraft would be located at our airport.

Here is that commitment word for word in the MOU:




.

 

[Vanfan123]

I think Air Canada will launch Edmonton YEG - London LHR UK on the Airbus A321 XLR , before WestJet does.
The AC A321 XLR is better suited for YEG- LHR / YEG to Europe.

 

[Glenco]

I think Air Canada will launch Edmonton YEG - London LHR UK on the Airbus A321 XLR , before WestJet does.
The AC A321 XLR is better suited for YEG- LHR / YEG to Europe.

If that happens WS will go out of their way to try and offer a comparable service. You know “lick the cookie “

 

[Glenco]

As a point of interest between them AC WS and a few other minor carriers operate 132 flights a week to YYZ, 132 flights a week to YVR and 90 to YYC. That pretty well tells you all you need to know about the major airlines strategy.

 

[Gronk!]

Porter has already turned off/disabled all refundable fares when booking for the near future. Don’t blame them though, they probably learned from last year when lots of people booked refundable fares during the (almost) pilots strike and they ended up flying half empty planes across the country when the strike didn’t happen and people requested refunds.

I have no idea where you're getting your info from, but a Porter flight with a refundable fare can be cancelled. The Air Canada flight attendants strike may be over, but the wage dispute still continues.

 

[Markyeg]

I have no idea where you're getting your info from, but a Porter flight with a refundable fare can be cancelled. The Air Canada flight attendants strike may be over, but the wage dispute still continues.

I’m not sure why you’re quoting a post that is almost a month old, but Porter did in fact disable refundable fares temporarily, prior to the AC strike when it became clear it was most likely going to happen, to prevent people from booking a Porter flight as a backup, and having a wave of last minute cancellations in case the strike got averted.

The wage dispute may continue, but this will go to mediation/binding arbitration. The only way we see another strike is if it’s a wildcat strike like the WS mechanics last year.

 

[MacLac]

Not sure why this press release was out of Edmonton…..something to do with the new CAF base?

SkyAlyne signs EllisDon for design of FAcT infrastructure buildings - SkyAlyne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2025 // OTTAWA and EDMONTON, […]

skyalyne.ca

 

[Gronk!]

I’m not sure why you’re quoting a post that is almost a month old, but Porter did in fact disable refundable fares temporarily, prior to the AC strike when it became clear it was most likely going to happen, to prevent people from booking a Porter flight as a backup, and having a wave of last minute cancellations in case the strike got averted.

The wage dispute may continue, but this will go to mediation/binding arbitration. The only way we see another strike is if it’s a wildcat strike like the WS mechanics last year.

A refundable flight with Porter was booked last month due to the AC flight attendants wage dispute, but was just cancelled yesterday once it was clear that potential cancellations with AC wasn't gonna happen this week. A full refund is in the bank - no questions asked.

 

[Markyeg]

A refundable flight with Porter was booked last month due to the AC flight attendants wage dispute, but was just cancelled yesterday once it was clear that potential cancellations with AC wasn't gonna happen this week. A full refund is in the bank - no questions asked.

They were deactivated at the beginning of the strike period for the immediate week when nobody was sure whether or not they were going on strike.

 

[David A]

This is fundamentally incorrect? WJ still provides the most flights out of Edmonton and has flights going to huge Delta hubs like Seattle, Minneapolis and Atlanta. If we can get a JFK flight we have all their main hubs in addition to the other places they fly Edmontonians. This irrational hate for WJ makes no sense, yes they have had issues with service etc. but they do provide a lot of flights out of Edmonton? This is only a good thing for EIA. Obviously, Calgary will get the most benefits as WJ is HQd there but we will get benefits too.

To be fair, WJ does provide us fairly good regional, domestic and US service. I notice it has improved a lot since the arrival of Flair and Porter, so perhaps even more cookie licking here.

Where it really falls down here is in international service beyond the US. AC can at least use the excuse that it is not the main carrier here. However, I do feel WJ's approach is very short sighted if they want to be seen as strong regional and national carrier and not just for one or two favoured cities. This is exactly why their reputation still is not great here despite some effort to improve service.

 

[blue12]

To be fair, WJ does provide us fairly good regional, domestic and US service. I notice it has improved a lot since the arrival of Flair and Porter, so perhaps even more cookie licking here.

Where it really falls down here is in international service beyond the US. AC can at least use the excuse that it is not the main carrier here. However, I do feel WJ's approach is very short sighted if they want to be seen as strong regional and national carrier and not just for one or two favoured cities. This is exactly why their reputation still is not great here despite some effort to improve service.

The issue is, they can't possibly undergo a massive international expansion from Edmonton without compromising another the entire existence of their Calgary "base". Having an expansion from a market that already partly powers their current hub would just lead to them cannibalizing their own services. Air Canada manages to have multiple hubs because they are both larger cities and are further apart. If we're here to critique Westjet's model and not just get sour about YEG's lack of transatlantic flights, YVR would be the better target for expansion.... and I personally believe they will tap into that market again sooner or later.

This is why, as disappointed as I am too, it's extremely naive to get mad at WS for not throwing money at YEG for international flights like some people here (and on other parts of the internet) often do. Edmonton wasn't picked as an international base on the hub-and-spoke model, Calgary was. You can't have both, that will never change.
It just kind of sucks that this thread seems to only ever get active when there's some expansion from Westjet, and everyone is only ever capable of seeing the negatives. It's always just the uninformed griping along the lines of "Westjet sucks and is destined to fail because they chose Calgary over Edmonton".

 

[David A]

The issue is, they can't possibly undergo a massive international expansion from Edmonton without compromising another the entire existence of their Calgary "base". Having an expansion from a market that already partly powers their current hub would just lead to them cannibalizing their own services. Air Canada manages to have multiple hubs because they are both larger cities and are further apart. If we're here to critique Westjet's model and not just get sour about YEG's lack of transatlantic flights, YVR would be the better target for expansion.... and I personally believe they will tap into that market again sooner or later.

This is why, as disappointed as I am too, it's extremely naive to get mad at WS for not throwing money at YEG for international flights like some people here (and on other parts of the internet) often do. Edmonton wasn't picked as an international base on the hub-and-spoke model, Calgary was. You can't have both, that will never change.
It just kind of sucks that this thread seems to only ever get active when there's some expansion from Westjet, and everyone is only ever capable of seeing the negatives. It's always just the uninformed griping along the lines of "Westjet sucks and is destined to fail because they chose Calgary over Edmonton".

I don't think most people or even maybe anyone here expects WJ to make Edmonton a hub anything similar to Calgary, but one or two international flights to Europe would be nice.

If they can't manage that without jeopardizing the entire existence of their Calgary 'base", perhaps they really are not as viable as they are trying to appear.

 

[Vanfan123]

The issue is, they can't possibly undergo a massive international expansion from Edmonton without compromising another the entire existence of their Calgary "base". Having an expansion from a market that already partly powers their current hub would just lead to them cannibalizing their own services. Air Canada manages to have multiple hubs because they are both larger cities and are further apart. If we're here to critique Westjet's model and not just get sour about YEG's lack of transatlantic flights, YVR would be the better target for expansion.... and I personally believe they will tap into that market again sooner or later.

This is why, as disappointed as I am too, it's extremely naive to get mad at WS for not throwing money at YEG for international flights like some people here (and on other parts of the internet) often do. Edmonton wasn't picked as an international base on the hub-and-spoke model, Calgary was. You can't have both, that will never change.
It just kind of sucks that this thread seems to only ever get active when there's some expansion from Westjet, and everyone is only ever capable of seeing the negatives. It's always just the uninformed griping along the lines of "Westjet sucks and is destined to fail because they chose Calgary over Edmonton".

Agree ,it won’t be changing anytime soon.

Plus Calgary YYC geography location is closer to US/ Alberta border = more direct nonstop between & US flights.
Yes sure Edmonton YEG geography location on the Map is closer to both Asia / Europe compared to YYC - doesn’t mean more international flights , as planes like : Airbus A330 Airbus A350, Boeing 787 & 777 are all designed to fly longer distances & can overfly YEG nonstop .

Every day lots of Western US / Calgary YYC & even Vancouver YVR nonstop Europe/ Middle East international flights overfly YEG 7days a week.