WestJet adds daily flights from Winnipeg to Montreal, seasonal direct flights to Nashville

WestJet is boosting its services in Winnipeg, adding new year-round daily service to Montreal, increasing daily flights to Ottawa and introducing a seasonal direct link to Nashville.

The added destinations, in addition to those already offered by WestJet, are "making it easier for Manitobans to embark on bold journeys," Nick Hays, president and CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority, said at a news conference on Monday.

Winnipeg's James Richardson International Airport has bounced back from the COVID-19 slowdown, now providing "so much more" choice, convenience and connectivity, Hays added.

The Montreal and Ottawa services will take off June 3, while the Nashville flights are set to begin Sept. 16 and end on Nov. 15.

The latter, however, will be evaluated for "future possibilities," said Mike Scott, WestJet's chief financial officer.

"We don't go into these decisions lightly. We feel that there's a demand and capacity that can be served by adding these routes," he added. "From that perspective, we expect these routes to do quite well."

Nashville will be WestJet's seventh direct link between Winnipeg and a U.S. destination, and the 23rd nonstop flight overall, Scott noted.

Most recently, WestJet added a direct route to Atlanta in September 2023 and to Los Angeles in October 2022. Both of those routes have proven to be popular, said Scott.

The new routes mean Winnipeg now has more U.S. destinations than ever before.

"I'd say that those routes at this point are exceeding our expectations, so we're happy to continue to provide trans-border opportunities," Scott said.

"As a born-and-bred Winnipegger, I understand how much air access means to the economy and to the people of Manitoba."

That economic benefit was also highlighted by Premier Wab Kinew.

"There's a huge amount of horsepower that gets added to our provincial economy when our business leaders can travel to the centres that they need to visit" — and potential investors can more quickly and easily visit Manitoba — he said.

Economic Development Winnipeg president Ryan Kuffner said the need for direct flights from Winnipeg to both Montreal and Ottawa is clear, partly because Montreal has connections with Manitoba's Francophone community, and because Ottawa is a hub for national associations whose employees look to plan conferences elsewhere in Canada, including Winnipeg.

"They inject a lot of economic activity into our downtown, they fill the convention centre, they fill our hotels, and that's critically important," said Kuffner.

"But they're not gonna organize those conferences … where they themselves can't easily get to."

Air Canada currently flies between Winnipeg and Montreal twice per day, and plans to increase service to three times daily starting in May, when it will also launch a daily route to Ottawa. The airline previously offered direct Winnipeg to Ottawa service, but paused the route in November 2023. 

Meanwhile, Porter Airlines will be expanding its presence at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport with new daily service to Ottawa in mid-May.

U.S. connectivity

Kuffner said Manitoba business leaders also want to see a direct flight from Winnipeg to New York.

Though "there's no reason why Winnipeg-New York can't be a route that's sustainable," he said that decision comes down to airlines and their fleet availability.

He said connecting flights to the U.S. is "the life-blood of trade, of investment or tourism."

"If someone had said pre-pandemic that we were going to have more U.S. connectivity post-pandemic than we had pre-, I don't think anyone would have believed you," said Kuffner.

"But here we are."

There is a lot of investment activity between Manitoba and Tennessee, Kuffner added. 

The province's exports to the state totalled $2.4 billion in 2023, representing 15 per cent of all exports to the U.S., a spokesperson from Economic Development Winnipeg told CBC News in an email.

Richardson International also operates three oilseed production and packaging facilities there, the spokesperson said.

The Nashville flight is a WestJet pilot project, and the airline will see how often it's used.