The airline’s updated schedule includes more flights to popular sunny destinations including Hawaii, Mexico and Costa Rica as well as an increase in domestic frequencies for travel from December 5th, 2020 through January 4, 2021.
On Monday (November 16, 2020), WestJet announced an update to their winter 2020/21 schedule with up to 55 daily flights to popular sunny destinations in the U.S. (including Hawaii), the Caribbean and Mexico. The carrier will also increase frequencies on domestic Canadian routes for travel from December 5, 2020 through January 4, 2021. For December, WestJet is adding flights to Liberia (Costa Rica), Punta Cana and Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), Bridgetown (Barbados), Mazatlán and Huatulco (Mexico), Orlando, Las Vegas, Honolulu (Oahu), and Kahului (Maui). In today’s announcement, WestJet’s Chief Commercial Officer, Arved von zur Muehlen, said,
“While this winter travel season looks quite different from years past, we are pleased to be able to offer our guests a variety of flights during the holidays. Whatever the reason for travel, WestJet continues to safely connect Canadians to destinations across our network and will continue to make changes to the schedule to meet the ever-changing needs of our guests and airline.”
The airline continues to operate a reduced schedule with a 63 percent year-over-year reduction in capacity. For the holiday season, WestJet will offer 54 destinations including 33 domestic (Canada), nine in the U.S., five in Mexico, five in the Caribbean, one in Europe and one in Central America.
On November 2, 2020, Calgary International Airport (YYC) launched a COVID-19 testing trial supported by the Governments of Canada and Alberta to reduce quarantine requirements in Alberta. Canadians traveling abroad are still subject to a 14-day quarantine upon return if they are not eligible for the Alberta testing trial program.
Commenting on the trial, Mr. von Zur Muehlen, added,
“Many Canadians are seeking alternatives to the 14-day quarantine and the testing trial at Calgary International Airport is a welcome first step," continued von zur Muehlen. "We are optimistic in the early results of the YYC COVID testing trial and hope to see future expansion of testing opportunities closely follow at airports across the country.”
Since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, WestJet has implemented over 20 extra health and safety protocols for the protection of guests and WestJetters. The airline has taken a science-based approach to evaluate operational policies for the health and wellbeing of guests using the latest research from internal and third-party experts including the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia. WestJet has served over one million guests on more than 25,000 flights since March 2020.
Prior to the Global COVID-19 pandemic, WestJet and subsidiary regional airlines, WestJet Encore and WestJet Link, offered scheduled service to over 110 destinations across North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. WestJet and WestJet Encore continue to connect all 38 of the carrier’s Canadian domestic airports with reduced capacity, ensuring essential cargo and passenger connectivity. During these unprecedented times, the carrier has maintained their rating by Cirium as one of the top ten airlines for on-time performance in North America.
Source: WestJet