WestJet is bringing back more leisure flights in December. The airline is looking to target sun-seekers with up to 55 daily flights to destinations in the Caribbean, the United States– including Hawaii– and Mexico. The schedule right now has been finalized from December 5th through January 4th.

WestJet's December schedule additions

For sun-seekers, the airline is adding flights next month to places such as Liberia (Costa Rica), Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), Bridgetown (Barbados), Mazatlán (Mexico), Huatulco (Mexico), Orlando (US), Las Vegas (US), Honolulu (US), and Maui (US). These flights are currently scheduled to operate through January 4th.

The full schedule is as follows for flights to the United States:

• Vancouver to Maui: 3x weekly from December 16th
• Vancouver to Honolulu: 3x weekly from December 16th
• Vancouver to Palm Springs: 2x weekly from December 5th
• Vancouver to Los Angeles: 2x weekly from December 16th
• Vancouver to Phoenix: 2x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Maui: 2x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Honolulu: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Los Angeles: 3x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 4x weekly from the 16th
• Calgary to Palm Springs: 6x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 8x weekly from the 16th
• Calgary to Las Vegas: 2x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Phoenix: 7x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 11x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Orlando: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Edmonton to Phoenix: 2x weekly from December 16th:
• Toronto to Orlando: 1x weekly from December 5th
• Toronto to Fort Myers: 1x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 3x weekly from December 16th
• Toronto to Fort Lauderdale: 1x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 2x weekly from December 16th

The full schedule for flights to the Caribbean and Mexico is as follows:

• Vancouver to San Jose del Cabo: 2x weekly from December 16th
• Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta: 1x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 2x weekly from the 16th
• Vancouver to Cancun: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to San Jose del Cabo: 2x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 3x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Mazátlan: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Puerto Vallarta: 5x weekly from December 5th, increasing to daily from December 16th
• Calgary to Huatulco: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Calgary to Cancun: 6x weekly from December 5th
• Edmonton to Puerto Vallarta: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Edmonton to Calgary: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Winnipeg to Puerto Vallarta: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Winnipeg to Cancun: 1x weekly from December 16th
• Toronto to Cancun: 2x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 3x weekly from the 16th
• Toronto to Liberia: 1x weekly from December 5th
• Toronto to Kingston: 1x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 2x weekly from the 16th
• Toronto to Montego Bay: 2x weekly from December 5th, increasing to 4x weekly from the 16th
• Toronto to Puerto Plata: 1x weekly from December 5th
• Toronto to Punta Cana: 1x weekly from December 5th
• Toronto to Barbados: 1x weekly from December 16th

In addition, WestJet will also be flying two flights a week from December 5th to London-Gatwick from Toronto.

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A robust leisure schedule

WestJet is not new to the leisure market. In fact, before it became a full-service carrier taking on Air Canada, the airline was a low-cost carrier. It still has a sizable footprint across leisure destinations in the Caribbean, the United States, and Mexico.

WestJet has an all-Boeing fleet. Most of the airline's fleet are Boeing 737 jets. Previously, the carrier had Boeing 767s that were former Qantas birds. Those jets have exited the fleet and made their way to Amazon as cargo freighters.

Most of these flights will operate using Boeing 737 jets. However, some long-haul routes, such as between Calgary and Honolulu and Toronto and London-Gatwick, will operate with Boeing 787-9s. These aircraft come with lie-flat seating up front in business class and have a true, dedicated premium economy section.

A closely-managed schedule

Creating a schedule in the midst of a global crisis is no easy task. WestJet's Chief Commercial Officer, Arved von zur Muehlen, stated the following in a press release viewed by Simple Flying:

"While this winter travel season looks quite different from years past, we are pleased to be able to offer our guests a variety of flights during the holidays. Whatever the reason for travel, WestJet continues to safely connect Canadians to destinations across our network and will continue to make changes to the schedule to meet the ever-changing needs of our guests and airline."

The airline's capacity year-over-year will operate at about 73%. The holiday season this year will see WestJet fly to 54 destinations. This includes 33 in Canada, nine in the US, five in Mexico, five in the Caribbean, one in Europe, and one in Central America.

The November 2nd COVID-19 testing trial began at Calgary International Airport (YYC) in which passengers could get a reduced quarantine period in Alberta after receiving a negative test result. WestJet is optimistic that there will be more testing opportunities around the country that will reopen more travel. Canadians who come back from abroad have to quarantine for 14 days.

Are you going to be flying WestJet on any of these routes? Let us know in the comments!