Westjet Airlines

What is WestJet Airlines?
'''WestJet Airlines Ltd. also known as "WestJet Airways"''' is a Canadian airline founded in 1996, It began as a low-cost alternative to the country's competing major airlines and provides scheduled and charter air service to more than 100 destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

WestJet is currently the second-largest Canadian air carrier, behind rival Air Canada. WestJet operates an average fleet of 737, 737 MAXs, the Boeing 767 and the Boeing 787, flights and carrying over 66,130 guests per day. In 2018, WestJet carried 25.49 million passengers making it the ninth-largest airline in North America by passengers carried. WestJet has two direct subsidiaries, WestJet Encore which operates the Bombardier Q400, and WestJet Link, which operates the Saab 340B. The airline's headquarters is located adjacent to the Calgary International Airport.

Alliances
WestJet is a public company with more than 13,000 employees, and is not part of any airline alliance.

Early Days..
Founded by Clive Beddoe, David Neeleman, Mark Hill, Tim Morgan and Donald Bell, WestJet was based on the low-cost carrier business model pioneered by Southwest Airlines and Morris Air in the United States. Its original routes were all located in Western Canada, which gave the airline its name.

On February 29, 1996, the first WestJet flight (a Boeing 737-200) departed. Initially, the airline served Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver and Winnipeg with a fleet of three used Boeing 737-200 aircraft and 225 employees. By the end of that same year, the company had added Regina, Saskatoon and Victoria to its network.

Swoop Airlines
WestJet created a Low-Cost aircraft carrier Airlines named Swoop Airlines that is set to compete with other Canadian Airliners like Air Canada's Air Canada Rouge airliner.

1996 grounding
In mid-September 1996, WestJet's fleet was grounded due to a disagreement with Transport Canada over maintenance schedule requirements. The airline suspended all service for 2 weeks before resuming flights.

Acquisition
on May 14th 2019 WestJet was sold to Onex for $5Billion. WestJet will now become a private company. Shares of WestJet (WJAFF) soared about 60% on news of the deal. The deal is expected to close in late 2019 or early 2020, depending upon regulatory approval.

Fleet
As of June 2021 WestJet operates the following aircraft: