New WestJet schedule flying larger aircraft, less flights

By Lethbridge Herald on October 3, 2024.

WestJet has already begun its planned schedule changes to and from the Lethbridge Airport. Herald photos by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Starting this month residents will see a reduction in flights to and from Lethbridge with only one departing flight in the morning and one incoming flight at night daily, but in a bigger airplane. 

With WestJet transitioning services to WestJet Encore this month, Jared Mikoch-Gerke, director of alliances and airport affairs with WestJet met with city officials, community partners and various organizations representatives to discuss the changes. 

After the round-table discussion with the interested parties, Mikoch-Gerke spoke to reporters about what the change means for those flying through the Lethbridge airport. 

“We’ve got a schedule change. It started a little bit early as of Oct. 1, but the intended changes are actually for Oct. 27, when we’re moving from our capacity purchase agreement with Pacific Coastal over to our regional aircraft with WestJet Encore,” said Mikoch-Gerke

He said that even though the schedule is not as frequent, it offers optimal connectivity to basically anywhere within their expansive network from Calgary.

“I know that the frequency is less and that’s the first thing that everybody sees, but in terms of capacity, when we talk about seats, it’s not a really significant reduction because we’re going from an aircraft that was 34 seats to an aircraft that 78,” said Mikoch-Gerke

He said that something they have heard the most from the community about their service in Lethbridge since 2018 are concerns around the reliability of it and the inconsistency, having frequent cancellations. 

“One of the biggest reasons that we’re moving onto a larger aircraft, is because we are more confident that we can deliver a schedule more reliably for the community of Lethbridge,” said 

In terms of what they are doing to persuade people to fly out of Lethbridge instead of driving up to Calgary, Mikoch-Gerke said they have introduced a new product called Ultra Basic which allows them to sell some fares at a cheaper rate than normal. 

“We’ve got some really cheap fares in the market right now for $79 and if you look at what the average fare was between Lethbridge and Calgary over the last 12 months it was $109, so we’re $30 cheaper than we historically have been,” said Mikoch-Gerke

When talking about the long-term plans for WestJet in Lethbridge, Mikoch-Gerke said they will be monitoring the situation and if they have an increase in demand, they will revisit the idea of increasing the frequency of flights, but in the mean time Lethbridge will have one departing flight in the morning and one arriving at night. 

“The flight is going to leave here at 7 a.m. and it’s going to arrive at about 7:40 into Calgary. Our largest morning connection bank runs between about 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 or 11 a.m.,” said Mikoch-Gerke. 

And for return flights into Lethbridge, he said that because they have a large connection bank into Calgary that arrives between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. the flight will depart Calgary at 11:40 p.m. to arrive in Lethbridge just after midnight. 

Mikoch-Gerke said this year to date they have had 66,000 seats available for Lethbridge flights and 35,000 travellers have filled them. 

Mayor Blaine Hyggen also spoke to reporters about the change and said it was actually a positive thing despite the reduction in flights. 

“There are positive reasons for this change. I know a lot of people are going to say, ‘Oh my goodness, like are you kidding me?’ But we’ve been promised that this is going to be monitored,” said Hyggen. 

He said this shows there will be an opportunity to increase airport traffic in the future and this is not an impediment when it comes to attracting people and businesses to the city. 

“We want to sell Lethbridge as a destination and Tourism Lethbridge does a great job in that. A big part of it is airline travel to get here, but it’s only two hours away from Calgary, so we want to make sure people know it’s not a struggle to get down to Lethbridge,” said Hyggen.