WestJet
WestJet is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Founded in 1994, WestJet is currently the second-largest airline in Canada, and is the eighth largest airline in North America by frequency. It began operations in 1996 with 220 employees, three aircraft, and five destinations, and was launched as a low-cost alternative to the country's major airlines. WestJet operates scheduled, charter, and cargo air service, transporting more than 25 million passengers per year in over 100 destinations across North America, Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Central America. WestJet utilizes Calgary International Airport as its exclusive global connecting hub, with Toronto Pearson International Airport being a strategic secondary hub. The airline has two direct subsidiaries: WestJet Encore, which operates the De Havilland Canada Dash 8, the Q400NextGen, on routes in Western Canada, and WestJet Cargo, which operates three cargo aircraft, all Boeing 737s (800BCF), which were previously used as WestJet passenger aircraft and converted for cargo use.
Key facts
History
1994–1999: First flights
WestJet was founded on June 27, 1994, by Clive Beddoe, David Neeleman, Mark Hill, Tim Morgan, and Donald Bell. WestJet was based on the low-cost carrier business model pioneered by Southwest Airlines and Morris Air in the United States. Its original routes were all located in Western Canada, which gave the airline its name.
On February 29, 1996, the first WestJet flight operated by a Boeing 737-200 departed. Initially, the airline served Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver and Winnipeg with a fleet of three second-hand Boeing 737-200s and 225 employees. By the end of that same year, the company had added Regina, Saskatoon and Victoria to its network.
In mid September 1996, WestJet's fleet was grounded due to a disagreement with Transport Canada over maintenance schedule requirements. The airline suspended all service for two weeks before resuming flights.
In early 1999, Clive Beddoe stepped down as WestJet's CEO and was replaced by former Air Ontario executive Steve Smith. In July 1999, WestJet made its initial public offering of stock at 2.5 million shares, opening at $10 per share. The same year, the cities of Thunder Bay, Grande Prairie, and Prince George were added to WestJet's route map.
In 2000, WestJet CEO Steve Smith was released from WestJet after 18 months in the position, due to differences in management style. Smith went on to head rival Air Canada's low-cost subsidiary Zip. After Smith's departure, Clive Beddoe again became CEO of the company, a position he held until July 2007. By this time, WestJet was the third largest airline in Canada, behind Canadian Airlines International Inc. and Air Canada.
2000–2003: Domestic expansion
Due to restructuring in the Canadian airline industry resulting from Air Canada's takeover of Canadian Airlines in 2000, WestJet expanded into Eastern Canada, beginning service to the cities of Hamilton and Ottawa, Ontario, and Moncton, New Brunswick. The airline selected John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport to be the focus of its Eastern Canadian operations and its main connection point in Eastern Canada.
In 2001, WestJet's expansion continued with routes to Comox, along with Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Ontario, Thompson and Brandon, Manitoba; however, service to each of these four cities has since been withdrawn. Service to Brandon, Manitoba, and Sudbury, Ontario, was subsequently resumed by WestJet's wholly owned subsidiary, WestJet Encore.
In 2002, the airline also added another two new Eastern Canadian destinations: the Ontario cities of London and Toronto. In April 2003, WestJet added Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, St. John's and Gander.
WestJet entered into a two-year agreement with Air Transat in August 2003 whereby WestJet aircraft would be filled by Transat's two main tour operators, World of Vacations and Transat Holidays. These chartered flights operated largely to destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean and the planes were operated by WestJet crews. This agreement between WestJet and Air Transat was amicably terminated in February 2009.
In 2004, rival airline Air Canada accused WestJet of industrial espionage and filed a civil suit against WestJet in Ontario Superior Court. Air Canada accused WestJet of accessing Air Canada confidential information via a private website to gain a business advantage. On May 29, 2006, WestJet admitted to the charges levelled by Air Canada and agreed to pay C$5.5 million in legal and investigation fees to Air Canada and donate C$10 million to various children's charities in the names of Air Canada and WestJet.
2004–2006: International expansion
In January 2004, WestJet announced that it was moving the focus of its Eastern operations from Hamilton to Toronto the following April, fully moving into the lucrative Toronto–Ottawa–Montreal triangle and tripling the total number of its flights out of Toronto Pearson International Airport.
In 2004, several U.S. destinations were added or announced. These included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and LaGuardia Airport in New York City. In early 2005, Palm Springs and San Diego were added to the company's list of destinations, while New York–LaGuardia was dropped. In April 2005, it announced new seasonal service to Charlottetown and ceased service to Gander. In fall 2005, Fort Myers and Las Vegas were added to the growing list of destinations.
In late August 2005, WestJet flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, transporting members of a Vancouver-based urban search and rescue team to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
After rumours and speculation surrounding the implementation of extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS), WestJet announced new service to Hawaii from Vancouver on September 20, 2005. In December 2005, the airline began flying from Vancouver to Honolulu and Maui.
WestJet's first scheduled service outside Canada and the United States began in 2006, to Nassau, The Bahamas.
Its airports
Its main hubs
Airports that list it on their own website
These airports include this airline in the carrier list on their official website.
Route network according to OpenFlights (open route database). It may not reflect recent schedule changes.
Data from Wikidata (CC0) · summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
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This page was last updated on September 26, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, September 26). WestJet. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet
MLA
“WestJet.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 26 Sept. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “WestJet.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified September 26, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) WestJet. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airline_westjet,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{WestJet}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-09-26},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/westjet |title=WestJet |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-09-26 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}Types it operates · 182 aircraft · 5 models
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