As airlines push to restart routes, WestJet’s August schedule shows a 10% increase in flights over July, including service to London Gatwick and Paris.
The new schedule will add an additional 200 flights over 48 destinations globally, including 39 in Canada, five in the United States, two in Europe, one in the Caribbean, and one in Mexico. Their Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will be stretching their legs once again with service out of Calgary to London Gatwick (3 times per week) and Paris (2 times per week), both started on August 20th.
WestJet is also adding Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York (LaGuardia) and Orlando to the mix, and will also offer service to Cancun, Mexico. Montego Bay, Jamaica will also see one weekly flight.
“With the many safeguards and procedures in place, we are certain Canadians can safely resume travel to destinations across our network,” said Arved von zur Muehlen, WestJet Chief Commercial Officer. “We continue to adapt our schedule to meet the needs of our guests and through our continued investments economies can begin to recover with the support of domestic tourism driven by air travel.”
The month over month change will represent a 10% increase in flights, even though the airline has a long way to go as they would only be flying just a quarter of the number of flights completed in August 2019.
“The patchwork of domestic travel restrictions and quarantine periods that are currently in place within our own borders are severely limiting Canada’s economic recovery and putting hundreds of thousands of jobs in our critical industry at risk,” said von zur Muehlen. “We must standardize intra-provincial travel advice to ensure Canadians can move safely and freely across our country.”
[Featured Photo: Anna Zvereva/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)]