By Skies Magazine | June 16, 2014 Estimated reading time 1 minute, 51 seconds.
WestJet Encore received its 12th Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft on June 12. The aircraft was flown from the factory at Toronto Downsview Airport to nearby Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport, before continuing on to Calgary on June 13.
Encore will introduce service to Eastern Canada starting on June 27, 2014, with a new hub at Pearson International in Toronto. Initial flights will be several daily from Toronto to Thunder Bay, Ont., and on to Winnipeg, Man. Encore’s initial Q400 order was for 20 aircraft with 25 options, placed on Aug. 1, 2012. On March 27, 2014, at the Chilean FIDAE Air Show, Bombardier announced that Encore had converted five of its 25 Q400 options to a firm purchase agreement. The list price of the order is estimated at US$167 million.
Other new routes just announced for WestJet Encore include the launch of daily non-stop service between Calgary and Penticton, B.C., starting Oct. 26, as well as Edmonton and Kamloops, starting Feb. 15, 2015. Parent company WestJet predicts that approximately half of its four to six per cent growth in 2014 will come from Encore. Since the launch of its operation in June 2013, Encore has introduced new turboprop service from Calgary to Fort St. John, Nanaimo and Terrace in British Columbia; and to Brandon, Man. It has also added turboprop service on WestJet’s existing western route network serving Winnipeg, and Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan. Starting this spring, WestJet Encore will also add Q400 service to Fort McMurray, Alta.; Kelowna, B.C.
