FORT ST. JOHN (NEWS1130) – WestJet is entering the regional airline market with an aggressive undercutting of Air Canada’s prices and an innovative new route in BC.
Its new airline, Encore will have BC cities as its first destinations: Victoria, Nanaimo and Fort St. John, using Bombardier twin-engine turboprop planes.
Encore is creating a new daily nonstop route, Nanaimo to Calgary. The all-in price for a one-way flight will be about $128, $63 less than Air Canada which has a stop in Vancouver.
WestJet Encore’s all-in price for Vancouver to the energy hub city of Fort St. John will be about $156. Air Canada will cost $67 more. And for Vancouver-Victoria, Encore at about $82 will be $11 less than Air Canada.
These comparisons are based on WestJet’s news release and the Air Canada Web site for flights on June 24th, the day Encore begins service.
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I just hope Westjet starts offering more flights from Abbotsford Airport… like straight to the Island or into Kelowna. Right now, you have to fly YXX to YYC and then back into BC.
I think it’s great that an Independant airline is giving AirCanada a run for it’s money..At least they don’t keep running to the government looking for bail-outs. It could spell doom for AC.
Westjet Rocks, Air Canada sucks.
Can’t wait to book many, many ,many of my staff throughout the Province on the new Westjet routes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Considering the new areas served I can’t believe they didn’t name the regional airline; “Gotta’ Get Outta Here” Air
This is good!
and it’s good!
No, it is not the race to the bottom. I am a passenger (not a union member commenting below), and from where I sit, the problem with Air Canada are the unions, who don’t seem to care about their clients – the passengers. WestJet provides good service cost effectively. This is why they succeed. Air Canada provides crappy service at inflated cost – no, not ticket prices, but too many union members not interested in working, but only interested in collecting bags of money. Anyone flying with Air Canada should have his/her head examined.
Cool! Now they can pay the pilots less and make them pay for their own type ratings. Heck, they could have the first officers fly for free as there are many young “hotshots” who love flying so much they’re willing to do it for free. Thanks for ruining the industry guys! Keep that race to the bottom going!
I wonder how many people will look at the fantastic and fast Q400 and think “Oooo, I don’t want to travel in some old rickety propeller plane! I want a modern plane!” Meanwhile, they’ll happily travel on Air Canada’s Boeing 767′s, which came out 30 years ago.