WestJet Launches Flights From Calgary & Toronto To The New Tulum International Airport In Mexico’s Riviera Maya

WestJet has officially inaugurated two new winter sun routes to Tulum’s Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport (TQO) in southeastern Mexico. Operating from the Canadian carrier’s hubs at Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and Calgary International (YYC), the seasonal flights reflect the importance of leisure traffic for WestJet at this time of year, with Mexico being a key winter sun destination for Canadians.

Toronto to Tulum

WestJet’s route from Toronto to Tulum will be the more frequently served of the new corridors, with two flights a week each way. Operating on Saturdays and Thursdays, the outbound flight is numbered as WS2034, with the service scheduled to depart at 09:00 local time from Terminal 3 at Toronto Pearson. With a planned block time of four hours and 40 minutes, arrival into Tulum is scheduled for 13:40.

Photo: WestJet

According to data made available by Flightradar24, the inaugural service took to the skies at 09:21 on Saturday morning. After just three hours and 32 minutes in the air, it touched down in Tulum well ahead of schedule, at 12:53 local time. Commenting on the launch of the routes, Kurush Minocher, who serves as Executive Director of Customer Experience & Airline Relations at Toronto Pearson, said:

Weekly from Calgary

WestJet stands to face stiff competition on the route from Toronto to Tulum, with Air Canada Rouge also present on the corridor. According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, the airline has 18 flights scheduled in each direction between Toronto and Tulum next month, compared to WestJet’s eight round trips. Contrastingly, the route from Calgary to Tulum represents a monopoly for WestJet.

WestJet

IATA/ICAO Code

WS/WJA

Year Founded

1994

CEO

Alexis von Hoensbroech

Despite this, or perhaps because of it (as an unproven market compared to the established popularity of Toronto-Tulum), Canada’s second-largest airline is only serving the route weekly. Departing at 08:55 local time, WS2320 has a scheduled block time of five hours and 45 minutes, with its arrival into Tulum planned for 16:40. Daniel Fajardo, WestJet’s VP of Network and Schedule Planning, stated that:

“WestJet is pleased to further enhance our connections to sun destinations this winter with new seasonal service to Tulum from Calgary and Toronto, allowing guests from coast-to-coast to explore the beauty of Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Cementing our position as the country’s leading leisure airline, the WestJet Group will provide more seat capacity than any other carrier to sun destinations this winter.”

The right aircraft for the job

Tracking data from Flightradar24 shows that the inaugural WestJet flight from Calgary to Tulum, which took off at 09:04 and landed five hours and 29 minutes later at 16:33, used a Boeing 737-800. This was also the case for the airline’s first Tulum flight from Toronto, but this won’t be the only type used on the routes.

Photo: WestJet

Indeed, the corridors, which will be served until April 26th next year, will also see service from the Boeing 737-700. While aeroLOPA shows that the 737-800s used for the inaugural flights have 162 economy and 12 premium seats onboard, the smaller 737-700 has space for 120 economy and 12 premium passengers. Generally speaking, Cirium shows that these will be used for the midweek Toronto-Tulum flights.