WestJet has unveiled its winter schedule, which is available for booking starting July 14. However, despite announcing seven new routes and five new destinations during the upcoming season, none of the new connections are to the United States.

That is despite the fact that in December 2024, for example, WestJet’s departures to the US comprised more than half of the airline’s non-domestic network. Evidently, due to the changes in demand, the airline has had to pivot with additional frequencies and new routes to sun destinations outside the US.

WestJet’s Growing Winter Schedule

On July 7, Canadian airline WestJet unveiled its winter schedule, highlighting that it would be increasing services to Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America with seven new routes and five new destinations, all of which will begin in December.

The carrier pointed out that while departures will grow by 3% year-on-year (YoY), capacity will more or less stay flat since it would be removing seats from ex-Sunwing Airlines and Swoop aircraft to update the cabins to “WestJet’s standard configuration before the start of winter.” The Canadian carrier integrated the two airlines into its mainline operations on May 28, 2025, and October 30, 2023, respectively.

“This winter, WestJet will operate 305 total routes and serve 62 Latin American, Caribbean, and US sun destinations, delivering more affordable opportunities for Canadians to escape the cold and enjoy sun-filled getaways. With both flight-only options through WestJet, and vacation packages through Sunwing Vacations Group, WestJet leads sun travel from Canada.”

Canadians’ Desire To Escape The Cold

John Weatherill, the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of WestJet, said that Canadians want value while escaping the cold, and the airline’s winter 2025/2026 season schedule will deliver both affordability and choice. According to the CCO, with the carrier’s expanded sun network, additional frequencies on key routes, and strategic growth across Canada and internationally, WestJet is coming through for Canadians by connecting them to the destinations they love at prices they can afford.

Weatherill stated that 71% of WestJet’s non-stop flights are priced lower than they were in 2024. The airline’s choice to specifically highlight that fact is perhaps unsurprising since on June 19, the Competition Bureau of Canada issued its market study about the Canadian airline market.

The study emphasized that, despite new entrants into the market as well as the expansion of incumbents, including such airlines as Flair Airlines or Porter Airlines, “the domestic market remains highly concentrated and competition from new sources remains fragile.” The Bureau concluded that at the eight major airports of Canada, Air Canada and WestJet accounted for more than half of all domestic passenger traffic. The Bureau also noted that international flights can be much cheaper, at least according to travelers’ testimonies, yet one of its recommendations was to remove international flight exclusivity rules, which dictate that “only one airport in a local area can have international flights.”

WestJet Launching Seven New Routes To Latin America And The Caribbean

The Canadian carrier will launch seven new routes from six Canadian airports, all of which will begin sometime this December and will be operated once or twice weekly. The seven routes will end in April 2026, indicating their seasonality.

“Seat capacity across the Latin America and Caribbean region is scheduled to grow by [6%], with popular vacation hotspots like Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico in focus for new route growth,” WestJet said. Perhaps one surprising route addition could be the flights from Thunder Bay International Airport (YQT) to Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ), which, since 2020, would make it the Canadian airport’s third-ever international destination, with the others being 👁 Image
Cancun International Airport (CUN) and Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport (VRA), according to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning tool. The two airports had been served exclusively seasonally from Thunder Bay by Sunwing Airlines since 2020.

According to Graham Ingham, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thunder Bay International Airports Authority, Punta Cana is one of the most sought-after sun destinations. WestJet’s new route will offer a convenient and exciting getaway destination for Thunder Bay’s residents, Ingham said, adding that the airport authority is confident that the new route will be a strong performer.

Other new routes include flights from Calgary International Airport (YYC) to Cozumel International Airport (CZM) and Puerto Plata Banreservas Aeropuerto Gregorio Luperón (POP), from Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to Samana El Catey International Airport (AZS), from Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport to Montego Bay Sangster International Airport (MBJ), from Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to Liberia International Airport (LIR), and from Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG) to Liberia.

All seven new routes, except for flights from Montréal-Trudeau to Samana, are going to be operated once per week, with the Montréal-Trudeau to Samana connection departing two times per week. Out of all the new seven connections, only flights from Québec to Montego Bay had been served between 2020 and 2024, with Sunwing Airlines offering a single departure on November 24, 2024, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.

Five New Destinations South Of The US

In addition to the seven new routes, WestJet also unveiled five new destinations in the Caribbean or Latin America that would be served starting in December. This includes flights from Calgary to Guadalajara International Airport (GDL), Tocumen International Airport (PTY), and Tepic International Airport (TPQ), as well as direct connections from Montréal-Trudeau to Managua Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport (MGA) and from 👁 Image
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Havana José Martí International Airport (HAV).

Similarly to the seven new routes that were disclosed by WestJet, only one had been served between 2020 and 2024. Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that during the winter 2019/2020 season, as well as in January 2022 and between November 2022 and December 2022, 👁 Image
Air Canada flew from Toronto-Pearson and Havana, offering four weekly flights with an Airbus A319 during the last two months of 2022. The route has not returned to the Canadian carrier’s schedule since then, per Cirium’s Diio Mi.

In addition to the four new destinations and seven new routes, WestJet is also growing its thrice-weekly operation from Calgary to 👁 Image
Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) to daily. The airline began flying the route on April 30, 2023. According to Amanda Ierfino, the Vice President of Sales & Cargo at WestJet, the winter 2025/2026 season schedule is a pivotal moment for the airline as it continues growing its cargo belly capacity. “With expanded capacity and increasing momentum, we expect strong cargo demand across new routes to Guadalajara, Managua, Samaná, and Havana,” Ierfino added, noting that the daily flights to Tokyo-Narita also present “robust two-way trade potential in high-value sectors.”

WestJet’s Transborder Silence

This year’s winter season release was a stark contrast compared to WestJet’s announcement last year, which the carrier issued on July 22, 2024. At the time, the airline emphasized that it would have 320 non-stop routes to 63 destinations in the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean, mentioned the fact that it would have the most flights to Arizona and 👁 Image
Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), and pointed out a 42% capacity growth YoY to Delta Air Lines’ hubs of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).

This year, there were no mentions of any transborder route changes, whether they would be positive or negative. While not all of WestJet’s new routes or destinations have yet to be loaded onto Cirium’s Diio Mi, the tool showed that in December, its weekly transborder departures will grow by 4.7% YoY. However, weekly departing seats and available seat kilometers (ASK) will contract by 7% and 6.1%, respectively. The Canadian carrier has also removed three routes, namely from Regina International Airport (YQR) and Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport (YXE) to Orlando International Airport (MCO) and from Winnipeg to 👁 Image
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), all three of which were present in December 2024.

Geopolitics, unfortunately, play a role in demand, especially when one of the country’s leaders makes derogatory comments and trade threats toward another. While Donald Trump, the President of the US, has delayed the implementation of steeper tariffs from July 9 to August 1, his office sent letters on July 7 to 14 to countries with warnings of steeper than 10% tariffs, warning that the US could send “more letters in the coming days and weeks.” The list did not include Canada, which has been pursuing a trade deal with the US, even though Trump signed into law the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMC) during his first Presidential tenure in 2020. In March of this year, in a post on Truth Social, Trump questioned who made the decision and why to sign the USMC.

According to data from the US International Trade Administration (ITA), Canadian travelers’ arrivals from Canada to the US are down by 5.3% between December and May compared to the same period in 2024, while Canadian nationals’ departures from the US to Canada contracted by 5.9%. In May alone, arrivals dropped from 851,940 during the month in 2024 to 745,705 in 2025. Cirium’s Diio Mi, using data from the Department of Transportation (DOT), indicated that in Q1, load factors on flights from Canada to the US dropped by 2.18% YoY.

The situation, naturally, remains fluid. At the same time, it is clear that transborder travel, originating in Canada, is down. In February, Alexis von Hoensbroech, the CEO of WestJet, told CTV News that since the Trump administration announced the tariffs, the airline’s sales on flights from Canada to the US decreased by around 25%, noting that the unfavorable exchange rate might have also contributed to the demand changes.