WestJet announces a major schedule expansion for the summer including a new Toronto-Chicago route and the return of many more

WestJet sent out four press releases this morning announcing a significant increase in their flight schedules for this summer. The airline is adding one new route and restoring service on more including many of their transatlantic routes.  Here are the details of the WestJet's expansion as travel continues to recover.

New Route

The one new route WestJet announced today is a new once daily flight between Toronto and Chicago. The flight will be operated by WestJet Encore and will start up on May 19.

Returning Routes

WestJet will be restoring many Transatlantic routes out of Halifax, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver:

Route	Frequency	Start date
Halifax-Paris	4x weekly	May 7, 2022
Halifax-Gatwick	1x daily	May 1, 2022
Halifax-Dublin	3x weekly	May 1, 2022
Halifax - Glasgow	3x weekly	May 2, 2022
Toronto – Barcelona	3x weekly	May 13, 2022
Toronto - Dublin	1x daily	May 15, 2022
Toronto - Glasgow	4x weekly	May 20, 2022
Toronto - Edinburgh	3x weekly	June 2, 2022
Toronto – London Gatwick	Daily (increasing to 9x weekly in June)	May 1, 2022
Calgary – Rome	3x weekly	May 7, 2022
Calgary – Paris	5x weekly	March 14, 2022
Calgary – London Heathrow	4x weekly	March 26, 2022
Calgary – London, Gatwick	5x weekly	March 14, 2022
Calgary – Dublin	3x weekly	May 8, 2022
Vancouver – London, Gatwick	1x daily	May 1, 2022

Domestically there will be a big return to service for Atlantic Canada:

Route	Peak Frequency
Halifax-Sydney	1x daily
Halifax-St. John's	2x daily
Halifax-Gander	4x weekly
Halifax-Ottawa	1x daily
Halifax-Montreal	1x daily
Halifax-Toronto	5x daily
Halifax-Winnipeg	6x weekly
Halifax-Calgary	3x daily
Halifax-Edmonton	1x daily
Halifax-Vancouver	4x weekly
Halifax-Orlando	1x weekly
Sydney-Toronto	1x daily
St. John's-Toronto	2x daily
St. John's-Edmonton	3x weekly
St. John's-Calgary	1x daily
Deer Lake-Toronto	1x daily
Moncton-Toronto	1x daily
Fredericton-Toronto	1x daily
Charlottetown-Calgary	3x weekly
Charlottetown-Toronto	2x daily

And for Transborder service outside of the new Toronto-Chicago route the airline will resume service on the following routes out of Calgary:

Route	Peak Frequency	Start Date
Calgary – Nashville	3x weekly	March 17, 2022
Calgary – Denver	2x weekly	May 22, 2022
Calgary – Boston	3x weekly	June 30, 2022

Wrapping it up

With all these routes being added or re-introduced it is a big step for WestJet to getting back to pre-pandemic operational levels and a positive sign on the road to recovery for the travel industry. For travellers it will mean more options and hopefully some lower pricing and more options to use your companion pass from the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard.