WestJet’s decision this week to cancel flights between Toronto and Greater Moncton came as no surprise.

President and CEO for the Greater Moncton International Airport Courtney Burns, “It’s not unlike some of the announcements they have been making at other airports in the Maritimes as part of their strategic shift to the West.”

WestJet confirmed on Wednesday, that effective April 30, it will no longer offer those flights to Toronto.

Spokesperson Denise Kenny says the airline is going in another direction and continues to adjust its schedule to focus on flights from Eastern to Western Canada, and sun and leisure destinations.

Burns says they were disappointed with the decision by WestJet and they will see an impact, “WestJet had previously been going three times a week to Toronto Pearson Airport. In 2022, they were going once a day. Prior to yesterday’s announcement, we were expecting it to ramp back up to once a day.”

She says they are still working through the financial implications, but they do know the available seats that would have been flying to Toronto and back with the airline this summer would have represented around 14, 000 seats.

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“One piece of good news is, we do have lots of other great options to get travellers from our region to the Greater Toronto Area. We still have Air Canada flying to Toronto Pearson. We’ve got Porter going into Billy Bishop Toronto Island airport, and then we’ve got Swoop flying to Hamilton. What we need to do now as an airport authority, is working hard to get in front of all of our existing airline partners or other prospective airlines and show them there is an opportunity to come in and fill the gap,” Burns states.

WestJet will be offering new non-stop service from Moncton to both Calgary and Edmonton.

Burns says, “There’s strong demand in those markets and we are really encouraging our community to get behind those flights. Those are direct connections to Calgary or Edmonton, and they start in mid to late June. They’re going to be on the schedule for the entirety of the summer. It’s going to be going three times a week, direct to Calgary and twice a week direct to Edmonton.”

As for those customers who have tickets booked between Moncton and Toronto after April 30th,  they should get in touch with the airline directly.

“I would expect in most cases, they’ve already received something in the form of an email from WestJet. If they haven’t, we encourage them to call WestJet,” Burns suggests.   They do have an obligation to either get you booked on another flight within a certain amount of time or to fully refund back to the method of payment that you used to book that flight.”