Back spotting in Portland two days in a row, this time to catch a new airline. The purpose of this trip was to catch the inaugural arrival and departure of the newest airline to serve PDX, WestJet (via WestJet Encore), the second-largest air carrier in Canada (not to mention the Canadian version of Southwest Airlines!). Announced earlier this year, WestJet now flies between Portland and Calgary, a route up until today was only served by Air Canada (via Jazz Air); this should be beneficial as it breaks any monopoly Air Canada had on the route and should lead to some competition. While the new service is seasonal-daily, there is already some speculation going around that this new service might go daily year-round as well as speculation that WestJet may upgauge aircraft sizes and even add service to additional hubs in Canada from Portland.
The second-largest airline in Canada (after Air Canada), WestJet's mainline operations initially started with a single fleet type utilizing the Boeing 737 family, hence the reference as Canada's version of Southwest Airlines! Upon its foundation in western Canada (hence the airline's name) during the 1990s, WestJet utilized the low-cost carrier business model pioneered by Southwest Airlines. WestJet expanded domestically during the early-2000s and jumped at the opportunity to expand into eastern Canada when the country's airline industry was restructured resulting from Air Canada's takeover of Canadian Airlines in 2000. The airline then expanded internationally in the mid-2000s by basing their eastern Canada operations from the lucrative Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle and began flights to a number of U.S. destinations in 2004; flights to a number of destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico were added by the airline in 2007 with much of the focus being on taking people from the cold Canadian north to warm vacation destinations to the south.
Starting the 2010s, WestJet started expanding to several overseas markets and eventually transitioned more towards a full-service carrier business model. In 2014, WestJet began their very first transatlantic flights between St. John's in Newfoundland and Dublin, Ireland. That same year, the airline announced that they were in the process of sourcing some wide-body jets and eventually picked up four used Boeing 767-300/ERs in 2015, slated to be utilized on flights to London Gatwick as well as winter-seasonal flights to Hawaii. WestJet also recently took delivery of it's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to add to the wide-body fleet for additional European operations.
It was also during this decade that WestJet launched it's first wholly-owned subsidiary in 2013 called WestJet Encore (the same carrier operating today's inaugural flights to and from Portland). WestJet Encore formed as a result of market study done by WestJet regarding future growth limitations of the company operating only Boeing 737 aircraft. As a regional subsidiary utilizing the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 NextGen turboprops, WestJet Encore allows for increased frequency of flights by using smaller aircraft as well as to expand service to routes with less traffic in the WestJet network. And much like their parent company, WestJet Encore initially began operations in western Canada and added service out of the eastern half of the country later on in 2014 before going international with routes to the U.S. in 2016. WestJet Encore is currently the fourth-largest operator of the Dash 8 Q400 turboprop in the world with a fleet of 47 planes.
Next month, Air Canada restarts their seasonal-daily service between Portland and Toronto. But it won't operated by mainline Embraer E-190s like we've seen in the past three years as the service has been transferred to Air Canada's low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge and their Airbus A319s; another exciting new sight to see at PDX for sure!
Portland (PDX) 45
Preview:
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N437WN) departing on 10L as SWA1522 for Ontario. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N832DN) departing on 10L as DAL520 for New York-JFK. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N637QX) departing on 10L as QXE2881 for Everett. |
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| Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-323 (N803NW) operating as DAL179 from Amsterdam executing a go-around on 10R, which was kind of surprising to see. The flight circled back on the left-downwind and made an uneventful landing on 10R on the second go. Note the Delta logo on the belly of the aircraft, which became standard on the mainline flight a few years ago. |
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| American Airlines Airbus A319-132 (N802AW) departing on 10L as AAL414 for Phoenix Sky Harbor. First delivered to America West Airlines before becoming part of the post-merger US Airways fleet. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N852DN) arriving on 10L as DAL2820 from New York-JFK. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N69829) departing on 10L as UAL679 for Chicago O'Hare. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N75433) arriving on 10L as UAL2415 from Newark. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N37471) departing on 10L as UAL2213 for Denver. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N627QX) departing on 10L as QXE2541 for Sacramento. |
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| WestJet Encore (d/b/a WestJet) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FWEW) arriving on 10L as WEN3628 from Calgary. The inaugural arrival of WestJet into Portland! |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N720WN) departing on 10L as SWA766 for Sacramento. |
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| Cessna 172M Skyhawk (N80470) arriving on 10L from McMinnville. |
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| WEN3628 taxiing to the gate. Welcome WestJet! |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-900/ER (N61898) arriving on 10L as UAL1950 from Denver. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-2BD (N955AT) arriving on 10L as DAL330 from Los Angeles. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N812UA) departing on 10L as UAL353 for San Francisco. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N491AS) departing on 10L as ASA292 for Los Cabos, Mexico. |
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| Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604 (C-GLPP) arriving on 10L. |
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| Compass Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N628CZ) departing on 10L as CPZ5723 for Seattle-Tacoma. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N553AS) departing on 10L as ASA391 for San Francisco. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N457AS) departing on 10L as ASA392 for San Francisco. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N716SW) departing on 10L as SWA1158 for Oakland. |
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| Air St. Luke's Beechcraft 200 King Air (N400SL) arriving on 10L from Boise. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-900/ER (N913DU) departing on 10L as DAL2510 for Minneapolis/St. Paul. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N61886) arriving on 10L as UAL1938 from Houston-Intercontinental. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N179SY) departing on 10L as SKW3327 for Oakland. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N183SY) departing on 10L as SKW3462 for Burbank. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-823 (N3737C) arriving on 10L as DAL1569 from Salt Lake City. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N622QX) departing on 10L as QXE2066 for Dallas-Love. |
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| Compass Airlines (d/b/a American Eagle) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N219NN) departing on 10L as CPZ6033 for Los Angeles. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N479AS) departing on 10L as ASA572 for San Diego. |
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| Cessna 525 CitationJet (N616PR) arriving on 10L. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8H4 (N8691A) departing on 10L as SWA2230 for Phoenix Sky Harbor. |
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| Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N284VA) departing on 10L as ASA1554 for Austin-Bergstrom. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N200WN) departing on 10L as SWA2069 for San Diego. |
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| Cessna 525C Citation CJ4 (N574BB) departing on 10L for Ogden-Hinckley. |
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| C-FWEW departing on 10L as WEN3627 back to Calgary. A little underwhelming considering that it's a Dash 8, but still exciting nonetheless to have a new airline serving PDX! |
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