If you haven’t caught the new WestJet #MagicPlane livery, you are in for a real treat. It is a complicated design that was not an easy task to complete. This time-lapse video above demonstrates the painstaking steps it took to bring this design to life.
The completed #MagicPlane livery (reg: C-GWSZ). Photo: WestJet
According to WestJet, “The special livery is designed to tell a story from tail to nose. It starts with Sorcerer Mickey, prominent on the aircraft’s tail, with magic stars coming from his hands. The magic stars swirl around the fuselage and past the wings, culminating with fireworks over the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World.”
BONUS: Alaska Airlines Unveils its Latest Disneyland Scheme
It took a total of 26 workers, using 36 different colo(u)rs, 24 days working around the clock to make the paint scheme work. Now that is dedication, but we think it paid off. Check out some more photos, plus some magic in the interior:
What viewers of The WestJet Channel might be watching – the ramp crew waves goodbye to a
departing WJ 737-700 at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. (YOW)
Earlier this month, WestJet Airlines launched a new way to connect with prospective customers, reaching TV viewers in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.
The WestJet Channel is now available to approximately 2.2 million subscribers on Rogers Cable Channel 206. The 24/7 content includes video of WestJet’s vacation destinations, including Grand Cayman, Bermuda, Puerto Plata, Holguin, and St. Martin-St. Maarten. I wonder – will they have shots from Maho Beach of their 737s landing at SXM?
Tied in to the channel’s 13-week run, viewers will be able to enter three Twitter contests (#TweetTheBeach) for a chance to win a trip for two with WestJet. For Canadian AvGeeks, The WestJet Channel also includes coverage of the airline’s ramp operations.
There wasn’t a note in WJs press release to suggest that the ramp ops would be live, but we can hope. Watching ops at YYZ or YYC on a wintery January afternoon might be a perfect way to zone out in front of the TV for a couple of hours.
Westjet Encore Bombardier Q400 C-FENY at North Peace Regional Airport (YXJ) in Ft. St. John BC, under a beautiful blue sky. Photo: Howard Slutsken | AirlineReporter.com
This was going to be a great day for AirlineReporter.com’s Canadian “Senior Contributor.” That would be me!
I was flying with a new Canadian airline in a brand new Canadian-built plane, traveling from a major Canadian airport over some stunning Canadian landscape, and visiting the headquarters of one of “Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures,” which happens to be a major Canadian airline. The Flight Attendants might have made it even more Canadian by greeting me at the plane’s door with a Timmy’s “Double-Double” and a hockey stick. That didn’t happen.
Translation? I’m flying with WestJet Encore on a Bombardier Q400 from Vancouver (YVR) over the Canadian Coast Range and Rocky Mountains, and visiting Westjet’s base in Calgary (YYC). I’ll leave it to you to find out about Timmy’s.
WestJet Encore began flying in late June with two 78-seat Bombardier Q400 NextGen turboprops. Since then, five of their initial order of 20 Q400s have been delivered, and they have options on another 25 planes. WestJet Encore augments WestJet’s Boeing 737-based route structure with regional flights of distances up to 700 miles. That’s about a two hour flight time for the Q400, but most destinations are 60 to 90 minutes apart. Having the Q400 in the fleet will give WestJet the flexibility to fly to new destinations, add additional frequencies to current destinations, or “right size” the service throughout their network by swapping 737s with Q400s. The Q400s are pretty quick, with flight times within 10-20 minutes of a 737 over these short distances.
The first destinations included Nanaimo, BC in the west, and as far east as Saskatoon, SK. As more planes come into the fleet, Encore is adding destinations and continuing their expansion eastwards. Encore brought WestJet service back to Brandon, MB in September, a destination that previously couldn’t support WS 737 service. This YYC-YBR flight is currently Encore’s longest, at a bit under 2 hours. In addition to adding direct regional flights to the WestJet schedule, Encore will look to keep travellers “in the family” by providing connections to mainline WS flights, and those operated by codeshare partners. Encore is also part of the “WestJet Rewards” frequent-flier program, and shares facilities with WS at common destinations.
This morning at 11:28 AM (Mountain Time), Westjet Encore‘s first passenger flight left Calgary, Alberta (YYC) for Nanaimo, BC (YCD). The flight was operated by one of the two 78-seat Bombardier Q400s that Westjet Encore has received from their initial order of 20 planes. The other initial destinations for this soon-to-be-growing regional airline are Fort St. John, Victoria and Vancouver, BC, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Brandon, Manitoba will be added in early September. They’ll continue to grow as another 5 Q400s come into the fleet before year-end.
It’s clear that Westjet has positioned their new airline to try and break the monopoly that Air Canada Express (Jazz Aviation/Chorus Aviation) has enjoyed over the years in many smaller Canadian communities. In fact, Ferio Puglieses, the new airline’s President, is pretty blunt about their objectives: “WestJet Encore is here to liberate smaller communities from the high cost of regional air travel while continuing to provide every guest with our award winning culture of care.”
Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG)
Photo: Gerry Kopelow
Dear YWG,
Somehow, AirlineReporter.com missed the opening of your new terminal in October, 2011. We must have been busy with the 787, A380, airline mergers and stuff like that. But we still want to talk about you.
And by the way, we do know that your full name is ’œWinnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport’, but frankly, that’s a lot to type over and over. So we’ll just call you YWG. Hope you’re OK with that.
Sincerely,
Howard at AirlineReporter.com
OK, everyone, let’s review what we know about YWG and Winnipeg, the capital city of the province of Manitoba, Canada.
