TORONTO: Canadian and British travellers will be getting a new low-budget option for shuttling between Canada and London after low-cost carrier WestJet announced plans to launch routes to the British hub next year.
It’s a move that will cut straight through Air Canada’s core European market and marks the first transatlantic route flown on WestJet’s newest wide-body aircraft.
Flights will be operated on Boeing 767-300 and travel from select Canadian cities to London Gatwick.
The Canadian destinations, schedule and fare information will be released over the summer.
In recent years, developments in the airline industry have pointed to a new era in low-budget, international air travel.
Newly launched carriers like Norwegian Air Shuttle, WOW Air out of Iceland and Eurowings are paving the way for another tier in the airfare scheme: ultra-low budget airlines that sell jaw-droppingly cheap international flights.
Most recently, Eurowings announced plans to sell flights from Germany to Dubai, Bangkok, Phuket, Varadero and Punta Cana for as low as US $111.
WOW Air out of Reykjavik also created a stir when it launched a major seat sale that included transatlantic flights from the UK to the U.S. for US $154.
And Norwegian Air Shuttle sold transatlantic fares from London’s Gatwick airport to New York for US $232.
Other airlines that have launched new international routes out of Gatwick recently include Korean Air, Air China, Air Nigeria, and Caribbean Airlines.
