WestJet is Canada’s second largest airline, and for most of their 24-year history,
they’ve flown single aisle aircraft.
However, in 2015 and 2016, they took delivery of four Boeing 767s, all formerly flown by
Australian flag carrier Qantas.
Although the decision to buy a small fleet of used 767s may seem bizarre, they served
a very important role for WestJet, as a way
for them to test the waters of transatlantic flying.
As all four aircraft have since left Canada to start another life with Amazon’s Prime
Air, it’s worth looking back on the past 5 years with these aircraft,
and this widebody experiment as a whole.
This is the WestJet 767 story.
In November 2013, WestJet announced plans to fly a transatlantic route for the first
time in their history, using Boeing 737-700s
between St John’s, Newfoundland and Dublin, Ireland.
As their way of dipping a toe in the water for transatlantic flights,
the route proved to be a success, by all accounts!
Although an important step for the airline, there’s only so much they could do overseas
with 737s, especially when their largest hubs are much further inland.
So, on July 7th, 2014, WestJet announced that they would begin flying their own widebody
aircraft as soon as fall 2015.
At that point, they were in the process of sourcing aircraft, and said that they would
be flying four of them between Alberta and Hawaii during the winter season initially.
Previously, those flights, slightly out of the fully-loaded range of WestJet’s 737NG
fleet, were flown with two Boeing 757s operated by Thomas Cook.
WestJet confirmed later on that month that these four widebody aircraft would be
Boeing 767-300ERs, with winglets.
Around the same time, Qantas was in the process of retiring the 767 from their fleet, with
those aircraft averaging over 20 years of age.
This still being very much a trial of sorts for WestJet,
these older 767s had lower acquisition costs, and were much less of a risk
than ordering brand-new widebodies.
Four of the Qantas 767s were flown to California, and then on to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to
be reworked for WestJet.
Just over a year after that widebody announcement was made, in late August 2015, the first WestJet
767 arrived at the airline’s home base at Calgary International Airport.
These were configured with 262 seats in a 2-class configuration:
24 seats in WestJet ‘Plus’, and 238 in Economy Class.
Once delivered, they had intended to fly their first commercial 767 flights between Calgary
and Toronto for training and ETOPS certification purposes,
which would be required for their Hawaii flights.
However, there were several delays in the delivery to begin with.
According to a 2016 article from FlightGlobal, WestJet executives had reported that the aircraft
were 55 days behind their original delivery schedule, and that further issues with missing
aircraft records also delayed their certification with Transport Canada.
The first revenue flights were planned to take place in early August 2015,
but eventually flew in late October.
Shortly after that first aircraft was delivered though, WestJet announced a bold expansion
plan for summer 2016.
They would be flying all four 767s across the Atlantic to London-Gatwick, from Calgary,
Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Winnipeg.
These flights would start in May 2016.
WestJet had also intended to start the aforementioned
flights to Hawaii in December of 2015, but
additional delays in the aircraft’s ETOPS certification posed a problem.
Flights between Alberta and Hawaii had started as expected, but using two leased 767s from
Omni Air International instead.
WestJet’s own aircraft were eventually ETOPS-certified in late December.
The second, third, and fourth 767s were delivered in November 2015,
January 2016,
and April 2016, respectively.
Finally, after an uneventful, albeit delayed introduction domestically and across the Pacific,
WestJet launched their London expansion in the spring.
However, these Gatwick flights soon garnered some attention, as 10 flights were cancelled
and several others delayed in the first two months of operations.
The airline admitted that they had experienced some teething pains
due to maintenance issues with the aircraft.
Omni Air International came back into the picture for a few weeks that summer, as WestJet
took one 767 out of the rotation at a time to be "proactive with maintenance".
Then-CEO Gregg Saretsky attributed some of the maintenance issues to the original rework
done in Louisiana, stating that,
“Because they were late coming out of the MRO, they were pressed into service
before an adequate shakedown period”.
Throughout the rest of 2016 and going into 2017, there were a few other hiccups.
Eventually though, the operational issues were smoothed out for the most part, and the
widebody trial seemed to have satisfied WestJet executives.
2017 brought the news that some had anticipated - WestJet would be ordering 10 Boeing 787-9
Dreamliners for further long-haul expansion, with options for another 10.
The first three of those were delivered in early 2019, and began long haul flights from
Calgary later that year.
With the initial 767 experience still fresh in mind, these were scheduled in a more cautious
fashion, and it proved to be a smooth introduction.
The 787 launch also freed up one of the four 767s, and WestJet used that to launch flights
from Toronto to Barcelona that same year.
As more Dreamliners were delivered in early 2020, the 787s would soon outnumber the 767s,
and that summer would be their last one with the airline.
Of course though, because this was a trial,
the 767s were never intended to be a long-term solution.
As far back as February 2016, before the fourth
aircraft was even delivered, WestJet was reportedly
discussing potential replacements with Boeing and Airbus.
As 2020 ended up happening though, all four 767s unfortunately and unceremoniously flew
their final revenue flights in March, and were stored in Calgary for the summer.
The airline donated its 767 galley carts to a Calgary hospital in April, and in July,
publicly confirmed that the 767s would not be returning to service.
As summer came to a close, one by one, each aircraft went into WestJet’s widebody hangar
in Calgary and emerged with titles covered up.
It soon became clear that the fleet would be heading to Amazon Prime Air as the company’s
first owned freighter aircraft.
As of the time of uploading, the four 767s are either in Mexico City or Tel Aviv,
all of them presumably undergoing cargo conversion.
With the departure of the final aircraft on September 16th 2020,
the WestJet 767 era finally came to a close.
With just over 5 years of 767 operations under their belt, the retirement came and went very quietly.
Through the ups and downs though, it was a pivotal time for the airline.
Lessons were certainly learned, and the WestJet Boeing 767 fleet indeed proved that
the widebody experiment was a success.
Thanks for watching this video about WestJet’s Boeing 767s!
Although they only had a short history with the airline,
all things considered, as a Calgary-based aviation enthusiast,
I definitely had a personal attachment to them.
If you enjoyed what you saw though, please do leave a like, subscribe,
consider becoming a channel member, and I’ll see you next time.