Winnipeg seeks to soar on ‘strong partnerships’ WestJet adds direct flights to Montreal, Nashville, boosts Ottawa service By: Martin Cash Posted: 11:20 AM CDT Monday, Apr. 8, 2024 Last Modified: 5:29 PM CDT Monday, Apr. 8, 2024 Updates

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Winnipeg is on a hot streak when it comes to racking up direct air travel connections.

On Monday, WestJet announced, starting in June, it will commence daily flights to Montreal and increase its current thrice-weekly service to Ottawa to daily. Also, starting in mid-September, the airline will be offering twice-weekly flights to Nashville.

Although the Nashville service is starting as a trial project, with no guarantees that it will last longer than two months, it’s the fifth new U.S. destination with direct service from Winnipeg since fall 2022.

That’s when WestJet started its Winnipeg-Los Angeles service to much fanfare. A year later, it added Atlanta.

United Airlines will be resuming direct flights to Chicago and Denver in May, after they had been suspended in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. WestJet has been providing twice-weekly flights to Las Vegas since 2005.

People may become less inclined to complain about how hard it is to get to Winnipeg with the addition of so many destinations. Air travellers out of Winnipeg will soon have a record number of year-round destinations in the U.S. to chose from.

An enhanced partnership between WestJet and “Team Manitoba” is being credited with the series of new routes. The fact WestJet’s chief financial officer, Mike Scott, is from Winnipeg probably doesn’t hurt.

“As born and bred Winnipegger, I understand how much air access means to the economy and to the people of Manitoba,” said Scott, who has been WestJet’s CFO for close to a year, after more than a decade as the CFO of StandardAero. (Scott remained based in Winnipeg after StandardAero moved the rest of its executive team to Phoenix about 10 years ago.)

Scott said additional capacity, with new aircraft being added to its fleet this year, increased its WestJet’s ability to add routes.

“With the new aircraft, we were looking for areas of opportunity to deploy that capacity,” said Scott. “We have been really happy with the performance of the Los Angeles and Atlanta routes out of Winnipeg. They have been exceeding our expectations, so we’re happy to continue to provide trans-border opportunities for the folks in Manitoba.”

“We have been really happy with the performance of the Los Angeles and Atlanta routes out of Winnipeg. They have been exceeding our expectations, so we’re happy to continue to provide trans-border opportunities for the folks in Manitoba.”–Mike Scott

The two-month Nashville pilot project is primarily focused on the leisure market, but will also support business connections in Tennessee, as well, he added.

Ryan Kuffner, CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, said music and film industry connection between the two cities is a growing consideration.

“Nashville is a great location,” he said Monday. “While demand is on (the) leisure side, there is also investment and business activity between Manitoba and Tennessee. We want to encourage that type of connectivity and hope it will demonstrate sustainability.”

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba’s exports to Tennessee totalled $2.4 billion in 2023 — mostly pharmaceutical products — representing 15 per cent of all Manitoba exports to the United States.

FedEx is based in Memphis and has a significant presence in Manitoba. As well, Richardson International Ltd. operates three oilseed production and packaging facilities in Tennessee as a result of its 2019 acquisition of Wesson, a leading cooking oil producer.

Adding direct trans-border and international flights out of Winnipeg has long been an issue the Winnipeg Airports Authority has struggled with. But with passenger travel reaching 91 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, along with the successful launch of L.A. and Atlanta services, it has painted a more positive picture of the Winnipeg market for airlines.

Nick Hays, CEO of the Winnipeg Airports Authority, has touted connectivity as way to “unlock new business opportunities.”

“To do this you need strong partnerships… like the one we have with WestJet,” he said. “Our relationship traces all the way back nearly three decades to the airline’s earliest days and we are proud to be part of WestJet’s route network since it first took to the skies.”

One airport official said the working relationship between the WAA and WestJet is so tight that new routes are considered with a greater sense of optimism.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who attended the news conference Monday at James Richardson International Airport’s departure lounge, said Ottawa and Montreal are centres of power.

“As we look to capture and make good on this ‘Manitoba moment’ that people are talking about, it is great that business leaders and others will be able to fly there directly,” he said.

Daily, year-round flights connecting Winnipeg and the two Canadian hubs will start June 3, with Ottawa flights leaving Winnipeg at 5:15 p.m. and flights leaving Ottawa daily at 9:15 a.m.

Twice-weekly flights to Nashville will start Sept. 16 and run until Nov. 15.

Scott said at the end of that two-month period, the WestJet route team will assess the Nashville route to determine if it will be extended.

WestJet’s decision to operate Winnipeg to L.A. and Atlanta routes was aided by the presence of a $5-million provincial fund to help airlines lower the risk of new routes out of Winnipeg.

The premier said that fund was not drawn on for the additional WestJet routes announced Monday.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca