‘Not the way we wanted to start’: some flights cancelled as WestJet resumes direct Kamloops to Edmonton service

“July is going on planned as of right now. We haven’t heard any changes from that. We’re getting very tactical updates from WestJet every other week on what they’re doing in order to mitigate some of the uncertainties around fuel costs.”

WestJet flew between Kamloops and Edmonton on Fridays and Sundays in July and August last year. It performed well, Moroz said, and the airline was due to operate for five months – from mid-May to mid-October – this year, supporting both business and leisure travellers.

Flights were set to operate on Fridays and Mondays for the five-month period, with a third flight added on Sundays from late June to early September during the peak summer travel season.

“It’s not the way we wanted to start our second year into this route,” Moroz said. “We wanted to see that full shoulder season, but we understand. All the airlines are pulling back in multiple routes and destinations around the world to accommodate some of these changes that have been thrust upon them.”

“But the fact that we’re still seeing some of the flights come through and July is still going on as planned, means we’re still optimistic.”

The flights that do operate are scheduled to leave Edmonton at 9:15 a.m. MDT and arrive in Kamloops at 9:30 a.m. PDT. They’re scheduled to leave Kamloops at 10:05 a.m. PDT and arrive back in Edmonton at 12:25 p.m. MDT.

“I don’t have the full picture on how bookings are, they don’t give that to us, but they were looking promising when I last spoke to WestJet a couple weeks ago,” Moroz said of the projections for the Edmonton flight.

WestJet briefly flew between Kamloops and Edmonton in 2021, but those flights did not perform as expected owing to a lack of available flight crews and passengers due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and that summer’s wildfire season.

The Calgary-based airline previously cancelled its flights between Edmonton and Kamloops in 2016. It’s former ultra low-cost offering – Swoop – also announced a flight between the two cities that was to begin in 2020, but it never did because of COVID-19.

Moroz previously told CFJC that the WestJet flight to Edmonton is expected to perform better than Flair Airlines’ short-lived expansion into the Kamloops-area in 2023.

by Victor Kaisar

‘Not the way we wanted to start’: some flights cancelled as WestJet resumes direct Kamloops to Edmonton service

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