From Reuters:

“WestJet Airlines will cancel 15% of scheduled flights in January because the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 has left the airline unable to fully staff its operations”.

WestJet today announced it will restore flights to the communities of Charlottetown, Fredericton, Moncton, Sydney and Quebec City after service was suspended as a result of COVID-19. The reinstatement of service will restore WestJet’s complete network of pre-COVID-19 domestic airports.

Service is set to resume to the five airports WestJet suspended service from in November, beginning June 24, 2021 through to June 30, 2021. In addition, service between St. John’s and Toronto, which was indefinitely suspended in October, will resume effective June 24, 2021. Following a temporary suspension, the restart of service between St. John’s and Halifax will be advanced from June 24, 2021 to May 6, 2021. Full schedule details and restart dates are outlined below.

Recognizing the investments that WestJet’s travel and tourism partners in the regions need to make to begin to recover from the pandemic, the airline will continue to encourage the Atlantic premiers to advance their efforts to ensure the region is open to Canadians this summer.

Planned Network Service Resumptions:

WestJet has made this announcement:

Building on WestJet’s position as Calgary’s largest air carrier, the airline began its new nonstop flight between Portland International Airport (PDX) and Calgary nInternational Airport (YYC) today. The new flight is the first-ever WestJet-scheduled service to and from Portland.

WestJet’s nonstop flight to Calgary allows for convenient access to its western Canadian network where the airline will operate 145 daily flights from Calgary to 54 destinations including Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Saskatoon, Regina, Atlanta, Nashville, New York, London, Paris and Dublin.  WestJet operates more flights to more destinations from Calgary than any other airline.  WestJet’s codeshare partner, Delta, also offers travellers from Calgary the opportunity to connect to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, Seattle/Tacoma and Salt Lake City International Airport out of Portland.

This summer, WestJet will operate over 740 daily flights in peak summer to 92 destinations including 42 in Canada, 23 in the United States, 28 in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, and five in Europe.

CUPE has made this announcement:

CUPE has filed an application at the Canada Industrial Relations Board to represent flight attendants at WestJet Encore.

A majority of WestJet Encore flight attendants have signed cards supporting unionization with CUPE, after citing the need for better schedules and better opportunities for career advancement among their reasons for seeking to unionize. CUPE is thrilled to get to work improving the lives of Encore staff.

“CUPE has industry-leading experience and expertise in improving the working conditions and the lives of our flight attendant members,” said CUPE National President Mark Hancock. “We look forward to adding Encore flight attendants to our airline family.”

Flight attendants have a tough job ensuring the safety of their passengers at 20,000 feet, along with challenging working conditions and often unpredictable schedules. But being part of a union makes a world of difference, as flight attendants at WestJet mainline can already attest. “Most definitely, my life is a lot better after joining CUPE,” said Kruti Sutaria, who is now the secretary-treasurer of CUPE Local 4070, representing WestJet mainline flight attendants.

In July 2018, CUPE was certified to represent roughly 3,000 flight attendants at WestJet’s mainline carrier. CUPE is Canada’s flight attendant union, representing 15,000 flight attendants at ten different airlines nationwide.

Meanwhile WestJet issued this statement:

WestJet has issued the following statement from President and CEO Ed Sims regarding the application for certification of its WestJet Encore flight attendants by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

“We respect the individual rights of our employees to choose their representation. The caring and passionate nature of all employee groups will ensure we collectively deliver on our strategy of becoming a global network airline while keeping safety at the forefront.”