That is type of enjoyable, although I’m curious to see how lengthy it lasts…
WestJet will fly from Calgary to Tokyo as of April 2023
WestJet has introduced plans to launch service to Asia. Particularly, as of April 30, 2023, the airline will fly 3x weekly between Calgary (YYC) and Tokyo (NRT). The flight will function with the next schedule:
WS80 Calgary to Tokyo departing 6:55PM arriving 8:00PM (+1 day)
WS81 Tokyo to Calgary departing 10:00PM arriving 4:00PM
The 4,949-mile flight is blocked at 10hr5min to Japan, and 9hr to Canada. The flight to Japan will function on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, whereas the flight to Canada will function on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
The airline will use a Boeing 787-9 for the route, that includes 320 seats. This contains 16 enterprise class seats, 28 premium economic system seats, and 276 economic system class seats.
For context, this announcement follows WestJet not too long ago going all-in on Alberta, promising to considerably broaden its presence at Calgary Airport. That is because of a brand new partnership with the federal government of Alberta.
Right here’s how Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta, describes this new route:
“The Authorities of Alberta congratulates Calgary and WestJet, and believes it is a main announcement for our province. Alberta is opening extra to the world. We’re excited to see the settlement from October end in billions of latest funding come into Calgary. New routes are opening our province to main cities all through the globe. We sit up for extra excellent news like this sooner or later and stay dedicated to rising Alberta’s aviation and tourism sector sooner or later.”
This new service to Asia enhances WestJet’s different Boeing 787 service in the summertime of 2023, because the airline will fly its flagship plane from Calgary to Barcelona, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, and Paris.
Will WestJet have the ability to make Asia service work?
I like WestJet, although there’s no denying that Canadian aviation is sophisticated. Canada is big and sparsely populated, and Air Canada is Canada’s solely “true” international airline. Then you may have a rising variety of extremely low price carriers, that are working point-to-point routes in Canada’s greatest markets, placing downward strain on fares.
WestJet appears to have a little bit of an identification disaster, and needs to be all issues to all folks. A number of years in the past WestJet began flying Boeing 787s. I can’t assist however really feel like that’s not understanding so nice — the airline first positioned a agency order for 10 787s with 10 choices, however since then, the order has been decreased to a complete of simply seven of the jets.
The airline has primarily been working these 787s to locations which are common with Canadians on vacation, primarily to Europe in summer time, and in addition to Hawaii in winter.
It positive looks as if WestJet could have an uphill battle flying to Tokyo:
- Whereas the airline has an in depth route community inside the Americas from Calgary, the airline doesn’t have any connectivity past Tokyo, no less than as of now
- 3x weekly service isn’t precisely going to be aggressive for enterprise vacationers who want frequencies
- Whereas there’s little question some leisure demand for this route, that’s additionally fairly seasonal
- WestJet’s 787s are in a fairly leisure-oriented configuration, with few enterprise class seats, and that’s the place cash is usually made on transpacific flights
Possibly cargo shall be profitable on the route, however it appears to me like odds are stacked in opposition to the airline right here. By no means thoughts that WestJet doesn’t actually have sufficient planes to broaden in Asia, since there are solely a complete of seven 787s, and so they’re largely used for Europe flights.
Backside line
WestJet shall be increasing to Asia, because the airline will fly 3x weekly between Calgary and Tokyo as of April 2023. It’s cool to see WestJet lastly add Asia to its route community, although I’m skeptical of the viability of this route, and the way lengthy it’ll final.
What do you make of WestJet’s Calgary to Tokyo route?
