Edmonton airport gets new direct routes to U.S., Canadian cities

For those tired of connecting through Calgary when taking to the skies, new U.S. and domestic routes are coming to Edmonton International Airport (EIA).

WestJet is expanding routes between Alberta’s capital and various destinations.

“I think everybody wants a non-stop, I mean, who doesn’t?” said travel agent Lesley Paull of Paull Travel. “Nobody wants to go through Toronto if they don’t have to, and in fact don’t want to go to Calgary either.

“So the more we can have non-stop the better it is.”

The Calgary-based airline says it’s adding new non-stop service from Edmonton to Minneapolis and Seattle as part of its 2023 summer schedule.

And it has announced new routes to London, Ont., Moncton, N.B. and Charlottetown.

WestJet is also resuming non-stop service to Ottawa and Montreal, as well as Nanaimo and Penticton, B.C. Those flights were killed off during the pandemic.

It’s all good news, according to EIA.

“The more flights that are here and the more you use the flights, the more growth will happen in our airport,” said Myron Keehn, the president and CEO of EIA. “People do businesses where it’s easy to do business, so connectivity drives people to travel.”

“Incremental flights into our community are great for not only leisure travel but for business. People make connections by businesses and its really important to bring connectivity not only to businesses in Edmonton, but for businesses in Edmonton to be able to ship internationally.”

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Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi was also on board with the announcement.

“Edmonton has not received its fair share of direct flights in the past, so this renewed commitment really speaks to that need,” he said. “It allows businesses from different cities to connect with Edmonton, and for Edmonton businesses to connect with other cities.”

WestJet’s Edmonton expansion 

WestJet says the new routes further strengthen its east-to-west connectivity.

“The average growth across Canada is 30 per cent this year, so we are strongly expanding our airline, and Edmonton is the place where we grow the most in terms of percentage,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the WestJet Group.

“This is a place where we are staying, we are here to stay, and we are here to grow so we would not set up a crew-base if our mission wasn’t to be to grow beyond what we are currently planning for, for this summer.”

Paull told CityNews she is pleased to see more direct flights out of YEG, and says the direct flights to Minneapolis will broaden travellers’ horizons even more.

“Minneapolis is a hub for Delta. And WestJet and Delta are partners so it would make sense for WestJet to fly to Minneapolis from here, because then you can connect out of Minneapolis to almost everywhere in the U.S.,” she said. “So that’s a good connection and that’s a hub and that’s why they would be doing that.”

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Creating Edmonton-based crew

Along with the flight expansion, WestJet is creating an Edmonton-based crew, which they say will create 150 jobs off the start – with room to grow and create more jobs in the future.

“In the past WestJet has had three crew bases: one in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver,” said von Hoensbroech. “And we are now adding a fourth one which basically shows how important Edmonton is for WestJet.

“And this means we will crew our flights to and from Edmonton, with crews that live here. And this allows us to create a more reliable, and more stable network because crews don’t have to commute in, they basically start and end their day in Edmonton, and it creates jobs in Edmonton which is great.”

The airline is calling Monday’s announcement the largest-ever expansion in the city. WestJet says it brings total routes flying out of Edmonton to 21 domestic and four U.S. locations.