WestJet Announces Major Europe, U.S. And Canada Expansion

WestJet on 18NOV announced its full summer schedule for 2025, including new, non-stop service between St. John’s and Paris CDG and welcoming back Halifax-Paris and St. John’s-Dublin flights.

As well, WestJet will enhance its existing transatlantic connectivity by starting its service between Halifax and both Edinburgh and Dublin one month earlier than 2024, while increasing St. John's previous service to London Gatwick from three-times weekly to four-times weekly.

Growing its global hub's transpacific service, WestJet also will maintain its daily service to Tokyo this summer, while increasing Calgary's capacity serving Incheon, Korea.

Route Frequency Start date End date Summer service change

Transatlantic

St. John's - Paris 1x weekly May 18 October 19

New route

St. John's - Dublin 2x weekly May 22 October 23

Returning route

St. John's - London (Gatwick) 4x weekly April 28 October 25

Increase frequency

Halifax - Paris 4x weekly May 16 October 25

Returning route

Halifax - Edinburgh 3x weekly May 15 October 14

Service extension

Halifax - Dublin 4x weekly May 20 October 13

Service extension

Transpacific

Calgary - Incheon 4x weekly March 31 October 19

The airline also will boost service from YYZ to Aruba, Kingston and Tampa by 33%, and from Pearson to FLL by 20%.

New U.S. and Domestic Flights

WestJet also is adding service to three new U.S. cities; Raleigh/Durham, Salt Lake City and Anchorage, and adding direct flights between Calgary and both Sydney, N.S. and Sudbury.

WestJet said it’s growing transborder service by 11% this summer, operating to 29 airports with more than 900 weekly departures, and continuing to enhance its connectivity from across Canada to Delta Air Line's major U.S. hubs. Through WestJet's longstanding partnership with Delta, guests connecting through Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Salt Lake City and Seattle will gain access to a vast network of U.S. destinations on a single purchased ticket with check-in for all flights at first departure, baggage tagged to their final destination and lounge access for select guests.

WestJet’s summer 2025 schedule features 10% growth network wide and domestic growth of 12%. As the airline introduces two new domestic and three new transborder destinations, along with 11 new routes across its network, WestJet is actively pursuing its strategy to improve air travel accessibility and affordability across Canada, officials said.

"WestJet's expanded summer schedule reflects our continued commitment to connecting Canadians by increasing our domestic and international capacity. In Canada alone we are growing capacity by 12%, operating to 41 airports with over 3,000 weekly departures," said John Weatherill, WestJet Group, Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer. "Offering more options for business and leisure travel, we're excited to see our guests' stories take off this summer as we ensure Canadians have affordable and reliable access to visit the people and destinations they love."

This summer, WestJet will deliver double-digit increases in total seat capacity across 10 major Canadian airports:

Calgary 11%

Edmonton 23%

Kelowna 15%

Montreal 31%

Ottawa 36%

Regina 23%

Saskatoon 19%

Vancouver 12%

Victoria 18%

Winnipeg 19%

WestJet will welcome two new domestic destinations to its network this summer with direct and exclusive service to Calgary. These new domestic routes enhance opportunities for Canadians to explore the country along with increased access to connect onwards to WestJet's vast network of global destinations, through its global hub in Calgary.

Sudbury, Ontario: Bringing two-times weekly service to the largest metropolitan area in Canada currently without WestJet operations, the airline is opening a highly-anticipated gateway for Northern Ontario communities to connect to Western Canada for business and leisure getaways this summer.

Sydney, Nova Scotia: In alignment with WestJet's strategy, the airline continues to strengthen its seamless connectivity between Atlantic and Western Canada, with the addition of two-times weekly service between Sydney and Calgary.

Anchorage, Alaska: Launching two-times weekly service between Calgary and Anchorage, Canadians connecting via the airline's hub, will gain coveted seasonal access to Alaska's incredible recreational landscapes and popular cruise opportunities.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina: Providing three-times weekly access between Calgary and one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities, WestJet will give Western Canadians seamless access to a thriving business hub, home to leading companies in healthcare, education and technology.

Salt Lake City, Utah: In addition to providing non-stop access to Utah's scenic landscapes, WestJet's new five-times weekly service between Edmonton and Salt Lake City will be monumental for business and leisure travellers.

In addition, WestJet will significantly grow Western Canada's summer connectivity to Florida, introducing four new routes to the sunshine state including a first-ever YVR-TPA flight.

WestJet also will extend between Winnipeg and Orlando to year round. In addition, Winnipeg-Nashville service will return for the full six-month summer season in 2025.

The acquisition of nine leased Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, along with Swoop and Sunwing planes, allows the airline to bolster its strategic fleet growth, while managing delays for direct-from-factory aircraft, airline officials said. Updating and refreshing the interior cabins of all of these aircraft will be prioritized as part of the airline's existing fleet reconfiguration plans, to ensure a consistent experience for guests across its operation as soon as possible. WestJet also has announced a series of measures aimed at making travel this coming winter a much better experience.

Qantas Rated World's Safest Airline For 2015

PERTH, Australia - AirlineRatings.com, safety and product rating website, has announced its top ten safest airlines and top ten safest low cost airlines for 2015 from the 449 it monitors.

Top of the list again is Qantas which has a fatality free record in the jet era. Making up the remainder of the top ten in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific Airways, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

AirlineRatings.com's rating system takes into account a variety of factors related to audits from aviation's governing bodies and lead associations as well as government audits and the airlines' fatality records.

AirlineRating.com also examined airlines' operational histories, incident records and operational excellence to arrive at its top ten safest airlines.

According to AirlineRatings.com editor, Geoffrey Thomas, "our top ten safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation and launching new planes."

"These airlines are a byword for excellence," he added. "There is no doubt that Qantas is a standout in safety enhancements and an industry benchmark for best practice," said Mr Thomas.

Over its 94-year history Qantas has amassed an extraordinary record of firsts in safety and operations and is now accepted as the world's most experienced airline. "Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major advancement in airline safety over the past 60 years," said Mr Thomas.

Responding to public interest, the AirlineRatings.com editors also identified their top ten safest low cost airlines.

These are in alphabetical order: Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines, Icelandair, Jetstar, Jetblue, Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly and Westjet.

"Unlike a number of low cost carriers these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) audit and have excellent safety records," said Mr Thomas. "Low cost does not mean low safety."

Of the 449 airlines surveyed 149 have the top seven-star safety ranking, but almost 50 have just three stars or less.

Five airlines only achieved one star for safety from AirlineRatings.com. These are: Agni Air, Kam Air, Nepal Airlines, Scat and Tara Air.