WestJet's entry to London Heathrow supplements its operation at London Gatwick, an airport it has served for nearly six years. It is unclear if or when it'll grow at Heathrow, but it's highly likely.

WestJet now serves Heathrow

WestJet took off from Calgary, its spiritual home, on March 26th, the last day of the aviation winter season. Its Boeing 787 arrived at Heathrow at 11:38 local time the following day, becoming Heathrow's latest airline.

WestJet's intention to serve Heathrow was known some time ago. It received slots at the congested airport for summer 2021 but understandably decided against using them. The conditions weren't right, not helped by heavy entry restrictions that significantly reduced demand.

This summer was a better time

It then applied for slots for this summer, based on the Airport Coordination Limited's initial slot coordination report for summer 2022. The subsequent removal of all UK pandemic restrictions means that it is, of course, a much better time.

It received 248 slot-pairs at Heathrow, as confirmed by the recently released start of season slot report. It's good for a 4x weekly operation, not surprisingly what the Canadian carrier offers.

The route operates to London on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, returning on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The schedule is as follows, with all times local. The inconsistency of times, especially from the UK, is mainly because of Heathrow's busyness.

  • Calgary-Heathrow: WS18, 20:35-12:05+1 (20:30-12:00+1 on Fridays/Saturdays)
  • Heathrow-Calgary: WS19, 14:15-16:05 (Wednesdays); 13:45-15:37 (Thursdays), 14:10-16:02 (Saturdays), 14:10-16:00 (Sundays)
WS18 Calgary to Heathrow
The first service utilized C-GYRS, a B787-9 delivered to WestJet in March 2020. Image: Flightradar24.com.

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Why Calgary to Heathrow?

Calgary to London is a large point-to-point (P2P) market, with approximately 253,000 round-trip passengers in 2019, booking data indicates. It was the third-largest Canada-UK city-pair after Toronto-London and Vancouver-London.

But it hasn't been easy, as two airlines exited the market. Air Transat ceased Calgary-Gatwick in September 2019, while British Airways ended it from Heathrow in March 2020. These propelled the entry of WestJet, with the market now solely in the hands of Air Canada and WestJet.

The changes help to explain why seats for sale have fallen by a quarter versus summer 2019. They're now barely more than in 2015 and at the level of a decade ago. Will British Airways reenter?

Calgary to London_ development of non-stop seats
Calgary-London capacity has gone back a decade. Source of data: Cirium.

Calgary to London

In mid-July, there are 16 weekly flights: Air Canada 1x daily to Heathrow; WestJet 5x weekly to Gatwick; and WestJet 4x weekly to Heathrow.

All use B787-9s. Air Canada's have 298 seats, with 30 in business, 21 in premium economy, and 247 in economy.

As you'd expect, WestJet's examples are denser, with more seats to help reduce seat-mile costs and increase revenue generation. They have 320 seats, with 16 in business, 28 in premium economy, and 276 in economy. If the proportion of business class is examined, Air Canada's is 10% of its total offering against just 5% for WestJet.

While there are 16x weekly services, Cirium data shows that it is down a third from 24x weekly in the same week in 2019.

What do you make of it? Let us know in the comments.