WestJet Gets Smaller To Grow Bigger

with Martha Chapman

Well, if love could have warmed up a chilly aircraft hangar at Bombardier’s facility in Toronto, we would have all been very toasty indeed. On Thursday an excited crowd of WestJet and Bombardier employees, shareholders, media and invited guests greeted bouncing new “twins”: a pair of gleaming Q400 NextGen turboprop airliners.

The 1st aircraft deliveries for WS’s new short haul division WestJet Encore, these 78 seaters will commence service in western Canada June 24th, inaugurating new routes to Fort St. John and Nanaimo. Brandon will come on line September 3rd, to be followed by other routes in Alberta and Saskatchewan later this year. Schedules will be dovetailed to connect with WestJet’s “big bird” 737 services for business and leisure travellers. The carrier has 20 of the Bombardier aircraft on order with options on another 25.

WestJet President & CEO Gregg Saretsky took to the podium (to big whoops from the crowd) and commented, with a huge grin, that these are indeed good-looking aircraft. “Soon we will be competing coast to coast, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. We are about to liberate Canadians from the high cost of travel. We are getting smaller to grow bigger to solidify our presence across Canada.”

Over 800 names submitted by staff were considered by the carrier before Encore was chosen. Clearly it sounds like a cruise wholesaler to a lot of us in the Canadian travel trade, but Ferio Pugliese, WestJet Encore’s President says it fits because it’s like a 2nd coming for the airline. “This is the next logical step for us. Air travel is a luxury or a dream in many of these communities and residents embrace us – sometimes literally – when they hear we are coming to town.”

The clearly-energized crowd lapped it all up. The adrenaline high lead WestJet and Bombardier staff to challenge each other to a road hockey game – surely an ultra-Canadian way to celebrate their joint achievements so far.