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WestJet buys 67 Boeing planes in largest purchase to date as it charts growth plan
(www.theglobeandmail.com)
Uh ... I've flown their Dreamliners twice and I haven't set foot on US soil since 1999. There are more places in the world than the USA and Canada. And Westjet covers, to my knowledge, the following:
- Guadalajara
- Panama City
- Tepic
- Puerto Plata
- Cozumel
- Mexico City
- Havana
- Managua
- Liberia (Costa Rica, not the country)
- Samana
- Montego Bay
- Punta Cana
- San Andres
- Tokyo
- Incheon
The latter two are part of a plan they seem to have to hit more Asian destinations, and I suspect that's what the extra Dreamliners are for. Either that or ramping up their operations in the Carribean.
That being said, even the 737MAX-10 can easily fly to the Carribean directly from about half of Canada (Winnipeg on east) and with a single connection from anywhere else.
I'm going to give Westjet a pass simply because purchasing airliners is a multi-year long process and the deal (and payment) was likely inked and made long before the boycott started. The costs of ditching a deal this close to delivery and retraining people for an entirely different aircraft (the A320 and whatever the Dreamliner-equivalent is for Airbus) are far too high to realistically expect them to do this.