‘Shifting demand, fleet constraints’: WestJet halts direct Winnipeg-Montreal flights

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This article was published 25/03/2025 (206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WestJet has quietly cut its direct Winnipeg-Montreal flights.

The Alberta-based airline announced last year it would begin daily flights between the two cities in June 2024. However, WestJet is placing the route on pause as of April 30.

Carrier spokeswoman Julia Kaiser cited “shifting demand and fleet constraints” as reasons for the stoppage.

“As for the future of the route, we have not published our 2025-26 winter schedule, and do not have additional news to share currently,” Kaiser wrote in an email.

The WestJet path was a fixture through 2019. It ended during the COVID-19 pandemic, as most travel was prohibited, and resumed in 2024.

WestJet made a slew of Winnipeg-centred announcements that year, including increased service to Ottawa and twice-weekly flights to Nashville.

Kaiser didn’t answer whether other WestJet flights departing Winnipeg Richardson International Airport have been scaled back. Service to Ottawa and Nashville appeared to be unchanged Tuesday.

John Gradek, an aviation expert and faculty lecturer at McGill University in Montreal, believes the move is another sign of WestJet focusing on Alberta.

“What I find disconcerting is WestJet is doing (these cuts) on a number of different markets all across the country,” he said.

He’s noticed it happening more over the past 2 1/2 years, Gradek added. WestJet cancelled several routes in Halifax in 2022; last year, it discontinued a couple flights out of Hamilton.

Many flights are directed to “Fortress Alberta,” Gradek said.

WestJet is also increasing its trips between Eastern Canada and Europe, leading to a redistribution of its planes, he added.

On Monday, WestJet announced a new route between Halifax and Barcelona.

It’s introducing regular flights between St. John’s and Paris this summer, and increasing the number of trips between St. John’s and London.

“They really have, in my opinion, abandoned regional services in Canada,” Gradek said.

Airlines regularly adjust their schedules based on demand, operational priorities and market conditions, said Kerilee Falloon, Winnipeg Airports Authority acting marketing director.

“We continue to work closely with our airline partners to support route development,” she wrote in an email.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com