hollywoodcory17

Here's YYC's changes (some are from previous updates, there may be others as well):

NRT - Year-round extension, 3x weekly
CDG - Increased to 1x daily
TQO - New, 1x weekly
HUX - Increased to 6x weekly
LIR - Increased to 6x weekly (8x weekly during peak periods)
PUJ - Increased to 3x weekly
MZT - Up to 5x weekly

SNA - Increased to 1x daily
ATL - Increased to 10x weekly
MCO - Increased to 10x weekly
FLL - Increased to 5x weekly
SEA - 5x weekly 737 / 2x weekly Q400
PHX - Up to 23x weekly
SFO - Up to 5x weekly during peak periods

YQM - Increased to 3x weekly

V1213

WestJet put out a few news releases about the winter schedule, including ones targeting YWG and Saskatchewan individually:

• The WestJet Group unveils expansive winter schedule, enhancing connectivity across Canada to sun and beyond
• WestJet’s largest-ever Winnipeg winter schedule brings 36 per cent capacity growth to Richardson International Airport
• WestJet announces record-level investments across Saskatchewan this winter

The big highlights from the Prairie announcements are:

• Increased intra-Prairie Encore flying (e.g. YWG-YQR going to twice daily on weekdays, and similar schedules for YQR/YXE-YEG)
• The return of daily Saskatchewan - YYZ flights
• Saskatchewan - YVR going daily in winter
• Improvements to YWG-YOW, YWG-YVR, and new YWG-YUL (with connections to/from Saskatchewan)

On the note of YXE-YWG and YQR-YWG now being double daily (reminiscent of 2019 when AC and WS both operated these routes), there are now increased opportunities for Saskatchewan - YWG - ON/QC itineraries, which saves a lot of time compared to YYC. However, these do not appear to be a focus for WS - if things connect it seems to be by accident rather than design.

Merlin666

Some nice additions for the Prairie dwellers. Though an all year connection to Germany would be great.

V1213

The Condor codeshare is year-round, although only YYZ sees service in the winter.

The YXE/YQR-YYZ flights are not timed to connect well with the DE flights, unfortunately. That said, one can potentially use a YWG connection to reduce overall travel time for the same price as the poorly-timed direct YYZ flights.

hollywoodcory17

YYZ-YUL/YOW is back once daily for the winter.

hollywoodcory17

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...a-and-seattle-

WS adding YLW-SEA starting January 17 operating on WS Encore. Starts 5x weekly, then goes daily from February 17.

WS3750 YLW 09:00 - 09:58 SEA DH4 D
WS3731 SEA 11:30 - 12:37 YLW DH4 D

Scheduled to operated year-round. WS tentatively will operate up to 5x daily flights to SEA in S25. Since DL hubs are clearly the main focus in the US, be interesting to see if maybe YWG-SEA/DTW or possibly even SLC could follow soon too.

TravellingChris

I'm trying to understand WS' strategy in Toronto. It makes sense that Pearson remains a major hub for flights to the Caribbean, and Bonaire was a nice addition. But I fail to see the logic behind continuing to fly to Europe from YYZ. They dropped London, which was prudent because there's way too much competition from AC, BA and TS. But why still fly to Dublin? AC and EI both cover that route, and both have wider feeder networks from their respective hubs. Nor does the Edinburgh route make sense, as AC already covers that and has a better feeder network into and out of Pearson.

WS' transatlantic 737 Max service from Halifax and St. John's are logical as most routes aren't covered by competitors, but it seems foolish to continue to deploy capacity out of YYZ head-to-head against more dominant carriers. WS doesn't have a competitive offering against AC on YYZ-EDI or YYZ-DUB: it's running narrowbody service against Dreamliner flights from AC, nor is WS' pricing that much better than AC's on the routes.

Instead of an unappetizing offering on routes that competitors are already doing a better job of covering, if WS still wants to fly Maxes from Pearson in summer, why not do YYZ-PRG or YYZ-BUD that no other carrier is doing?

aerobod

The CASM of a narrow body on those routes is quite a bit better than a widebody (about 20% less), so WS can make a profit at the lowest ticket prices, the competition has to make it on their Business class offerings if they go head-to-head on the lowest prices. TS with A321LRs are closer competition.

WS can reliably reach DUB and EDI from YYZ without any significant risk of a tech stop on the way back, but not much further (YYZ-MAN which was announced before COVID but never operated, is also possible). LGW would be reachable in most circumstances, but not CDG or AMS in respect of return flights and high pax and baggage load.

TravellingChris

The problem is that WS' pricing isn't THAT much better that savvy travelers are willing to overlook the downsides of flying across a major ocean in a narrowbody, not to mention the lack of a decent FFP. AC wins the day on both those scores. I think it's a safer bet for WS not going head to head with AC in arenas where WS' product and pricing are uncompetitive. This of course is why WS withdrew from much of the domestic flying it was doing in Eastern Canada where it was far behind AC in terms of market share and consumer preference.

WS is smarter to deploy its aircraft on routes where there is weaker competition or no non-stop service at all. Reviving the Paris service out of Halifax would be smart, and perhaps looking at additional gateway cities from the Maritimes in terms of summer seasonal service to the UK. I don't think there's any way for WS to win on Toronto-Europe routes when their pricing is as uncompetitive as it is. If WS were offering basic to EDI or DUB at $350 or $400 RT there would probably be a lot of takers, but the most recent fares I saw had WS only about $100 off AC's fares. For that price most people would rather have the comfort of a widebody aircraft (more lavatories, more bin space, more room to stretch out) as well as earn miles in Canada's best FFP Aeroplan.

aerobod

$100 price difference is a major amount from a price sensitive traveller perspective, $5 is enough to move the listing order enough on search engines to capture price sensitive pax and alter load factors. Aircraft comfort and FFP programs mean nothing to this type of traveller when compared with price.

WS is selling YYZ-DUB for $416 this week, the break-even on a 737-8 for them will be about $360 including AIF, but for AC it will be about $500 on a 787-9 with their configuration. Over the next few months there are many days that YYZ-DUB is close to break even at $376. WS also has YYZ-EDI for $419 this week and some loss-leading days later in the month at $277. Obviously with few loss leading days, they don't seem to feel the need to not make a profit on the routes to stimulate demand, so are likely filling the aircraft well

tecate55

One area where westjet wins over AC to/from Europe is one-ways. Probably not a lot of the market, but when you need it, the price difference is often dramatic.

(and it’s not just seasonal open-ended travellers, but enables you to at least use WJ for a direction when you construct your own open-jaw with another airline for the other direction).

TravellingChris

But if that's the case, why did WS yank YYZ-LGW and YYZ-BCN? If a $5 fare difference is enough to move the needle, then they should have been able to continue filling those flights despite superior competition from the behemoth that is AC at Pearson.

cedric

Those flights require a widebody, which Westjet have found better places to deploy where there is less (or no) nonstop competition.
Economics of a MAX are completely different, and they aren't as constrained.

aerobod

They pulled both of those routes due to removing 787 service from YYZ, they don’t have a sufficient 787 fleet at the moment to operate anywhere other than out of YYC as the hub. YYZ-BCN is definitely not reachable with a 737-8 and LGW-YYZ is marginal with a full flight and strong prevailing winds, leading to low flight reliability without a tech stop in somewhere such as EDI, DUB or YHZ.

Their main competition to Europe for WS at the moment is TS operating narrow bodies. if you look at Google Flights from now until the end of Sept, WS has the most days with the lowest price compared with any other airline on YYZ-DUB and seems to have the lowest price overall. Very few fares are much under $400 one-way, the LCCs are likely making money at this time of year, with no need to descend into loss-leading prices.