Canadian airline WestJet is to launch a new direct Dublin-Calgary service next summer. The new route will operate three days per week with a Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. It will be the only direct scheduled service between the two cities, while the new service will also offer potential onward connections to 24 destinations including Vancouver and Las Vegas. "It's great to see yet another Canadian destination added to the growing Dublin Airport network, and to see WestJet expand its operations in Ireland," Dublin Airport's Managing Director Vincent Harrison said. Mr Harrison said Dublin Airport would work closely with WestJet to promote the new route and to grow passenger numbers and trade and tourism links between the two cities. He noted that about 21,000 people per year travel already between Dublin and Calgary on indirect air services. Calgary will be one of six Canadian destinations served directly from Dublin Airport next summer; joining Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, St John's and Hamilton, Ontario. WestJet is Canada's second largest airline and it is headquartered in Calgary. It operates about 725 daily flights to 105 destinations and it carried more than 24 million passengers. Dublin was WestJet's first ever transatlantic destination, when it launched its Dublin-St John's Newfoundland service in the summer of 2014. The new Dublin-Calgary route will operate from Dublin three times per week on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. Flights will depart at 13:45 and arrive in Calgary at 15:05. The return flights will depart Calgary on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday at 20:45 and arrive in Dublin at 11:38 the following day.<doc-sep>Share this Story: WestJet announces new direct flights to Europe on Dreamliner aircraft WestJet announces new direct flights to Europe on Dreamliner aircraft Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia Article content WestJet has announced three new direct flights to Europe out of Calgary International Airport, which president and CEO Ed Sims says will make the airline the first Canadian company to base Dreamliner aircraft out of Calgary. The non-stop services on board new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will take travellers from Calgary to London Gatwick, Paris and Dublin. The new flights will launch on April 28, May 17 and June 1, 2019. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or WestJet announces new direct flights to Europe on Dreamliner aircraft Back to video The three aircraft are among 10 Dreamliners the company has on order. Plans for the next three Dreamliner airplanes will be announced this time next year. Sims said WestJet’s decision to base the first three of those assets in Calgary is a “huge vote of confidence in the local economy and in the airport.” The new routes will amount to a total of 14 weekly flights from the United Kingdom and Western Europe to Calgary. Sims said the airline has the potential to eventually bring more than 150,000 visitors to Calgary each year across the three new flights. The new routes will support an estimated 650 full-time jobs and $100 million in economic output, according to WestJet. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content In addition to the routes, WestJet is also launching a new logo and branding in an effort to not only bring Canadians to international destinations, but to bring “more of the world to Canada,” Sims said. A new commercial refers to “the new WestJet” and to the slogan “Love where you’re going.” Sims said WestJet opted to base the flights out of Calgary because the city is “underserved” when it comes to flights to Europe. Article content “Western Canada, traditionally, is underserved on transatlantic (flights), and by contrast, a lot of the Eastern Canadian airports have got quite dense traffic flows already,” he said. “We think there’s a great opportunity to both introduce a new generation of travellers onto these services and obviously to move travellers from other existing services as well.” Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or He admitted the airline has “a big job to do” in competing with other airlines to bring travellers to Calgary. “I think that’s probably where our social media and digital presence really kicks in,” he said. The 320-seat airplanes will include 16 private pods with lie-flat seats, 24 premium economy seats and 280 economy seats. Sims described the aircraft as featuring “generous personal space,” larger windows, better humidity and more comfortable cabin pressure. The first of the new Dreamliners will arrive in Calgary in early 2019, with two more arriving by April. The planes will first operate on domestic flights for crew training and regulatory compliance before the international flights launch, according to the airline. Bob Sartor, president and CEO of YYC Calgary Airport Authority, said the new WestJet routes will drive further growth in the international terminal, with expansion to its retail and food and beverage options. “These new jets … will also bring more tourism and business travellers to our great city and region,” he said in a news release. Bookings for the new flights went on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Share this article in your social network Latest National Stories Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Calgary Herald Headline News Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. Email Address There was an error, please provide a valid email address. By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300 Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it please check your junk folder. The next issue of Calgary Herald Headline News will soon be in your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again Trending<doc-sep>WestJet Airlines Ltd. plans to launch non-stop service from Calgary to Dublin, Paris and London's Gatwick Airport using its first three new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, challenging Air Canada with transatlantic flights that target business passengers and the jet set. "It's really important for us to be able to attract what I would call bucket-list travellers, premium leisure travellers and, indeed, a share of business corporate travellers," WestJet chief executive Ed Sims said in an phone interview from Calgary. The airline aims to invest roughly $4 billion in new airplanes over the next six or seven years, including 10 Dreamliners, Sims said. The new routes reflect not just a grab for more would-be Air Canada passengers, but also an attempt to entice new travellers. "We think the markets here are being very underserved, so I think there's an opportunity to attract a new generation of travellers," Sims said. "But of course, for outbound Canadians it now gives them a choice," he added. The wide-body 320-seat Dreamliners include 16 lie-flat seats in a business cabin as well as 24 premium economy seats, as WestJet continues to recast itself as a large intercontinental carrier. "It's a real evolution from WestJet being a clone of Southwest (Airlines) to becoming more and more similar in some ways to Air Canada -- but trying to differentiate themselves," said Karl Moore, an aviation expert at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management. WestJet is battling with Air Canada on a number of fronts. Its Encore regional service goes up against Air Canada Express and its ultra-low-cost Swoop airline recently launched flights to the U.S. and the Caribbean, in competition with Air Canada's six-year-old Rouge unit. On top of a long-range fleet that still dwarfs WestJet's, Air Canada's recent deal at the head of a consortium buying the Aeroplan reward program from Aimia Inc. represents another potential advantage WestJet aims to reduce. The Calgary-based company announced Wednesday it will top up its WestJet Rewards program with a new platinum tier later this year. "Flying to Europe is not going to be all that dissimilar to Air Canada," Moore said. "You're going to have points, you're going to have a business class, you're flying long-haul in brand new planes." WestJet remains outside the constellation of major airline alliances, however, which comprise Star Alliance -- of which Air Canada is a member -- SkyTeam and Oneworld. "I've absolutely changed my behaviour because I can get points flying on non-Air Canada partner airlines," Moore said. "I don't think WestJet is as powerful to the global traveller as Air Canada with the Star Alliance." Robert Kokonis, president of Toronto-based consulting firm AirTrav Inc., said snatching up brand new, long-range jetliners complete with "a lot of bells and whistles" are "really big" moves, but not enough to lure thousands of high-flying passengers away from Air Canada without an alliance network to top it off. "I want to be able to earn and redeem points at other airlines. I want that access to a business-class lounge in the Warsaw airport," Kokonis said. WestJet's three new routes from Calgary are slated to start in the spring, with sales kicking off Wednesday. The Dreamliner will fly daily between Calgary and Gatwick, four times a week to and from Paris and three times a week to and from Dublin. Additional routes will be announced next year for the next three planes and the following year for the remaining four. The aircraft boasts higher fuel efficiency, lower maintenance costs and better operational integrity than the older, mid- to long-range Boeing 767 jetliners WestJet currently has.<doc-sep>
The first three of WestJet's 10 new long-distance Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will offer direct international flights between Calgary and Europe, the company announced Wednesday. The new planes mean direct flights between Calgary, Dublin and Paris. One of the new planes will also fly the already established Calgary to London, England, route. "This is a huge day for WestJet. This signals our first real venture into becoming a full-service, fully global network carrier," said airline chief executive Ed Sims. "It's a transformation of an organization that started 22 years ago, flying low cost, point-to-point. We're now rubbing shoulders with the big guys around the world." Travel times for Albertans WestJet also hopes the routes will bring up to 185,000 visitors to the Calgary area each year, starting in April 2019 when the international flights are scheduled to start. Watch — when WestJet unveiled the new planes: Sims said the new routes and schedules will ease trans-Atlantic travel troubles for local people. "One of the advantages of having a Calgary-based carrier flying out of Calgary is we get to chose our slots that are best for Albertans," he said. "So we'll be flying these international routes between 7 o'clock in the morning and 10 o'clock in the morning." The company said the three new routes will support 650 full-time jobs and $100 million in economic output. More Dreamliners on order The Dreamliners have a range of 14,000 kilometres and are said to be as much as 20 per cent more fuel efficient than WestJet's current fleet of 767s. WestJet has ordered a total of 10 of the planes, with the first arriving in Calgary in early 2019 and the other two by April, according to the airline. The hubs for those additional planes has not been announced. The company also has options for an additional 10 Dreamliners to arrive between 2020 and 2024. Each plane will carry 320 guests in business, premium and economy-class sections. The newly revealed business class features 16 private pods with lie-flat seats.