WestJet to wet-lease two Boeing 767s after ETOPS delay | ATW

Brian Sumers - ATW

WestJet Airlines will wet-lease two Boeing 767s from Omni Air International for one month beginning on Dec. 11 due to a delay in receiving its own ETOPS certification, an airline spokesman said.

The Calgary-based low-cost carrier is in the process of taking four used Boeing 767-300ERs, all of which once flew for Qantas, as part of a deal with Boeing Capital. When WestJet said earlier this year that it would fly between Alberta and Hawaii beginning in December, it expected those aircraft would be certified for overwater flights by the time the schedule started.

But on WestJet’s third-quarter earnings conference call Nov. 3, WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky said Boeing chose a new U.S. maintenance facility that “struggled” with servicing WestJet’s first 767, which delayed the start date of domestic Canada flights needed for ETOPS certification. WestJet also found it did not have all the historical maintenance records it needed from Qantas, so it took some time to re-create them.

The first WestJet Boeing 767 had been scheduled to start flying domestic routes on Aug. 2, but it did not start flying within Canada until Oct. 22. WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer said he could not predict when the airline will secure ETOPS approval, but he said the wet-lease agreement with Omni will last only 30 days. “We are actively working with Transport Canada to obtain 180 min. ETOPS certification in respect of our 767 fleet, but determined that we needed to secure an alternate solution for fulfilling the first 30 days of this winter’s Alberta-Hawaii service,” he said.

WestJet has leased two aircraft: a Boeing 767-200 and a Boeing 767-300. They will fly from Calgary and Edmonton in Canada to Honolulu and Maui. WestJet told passengers service and seating will be similar to what the airline would offer on its own aircraft.

On the earnings call, Saretsky said WestJet might ask Boeing Capital to pay for costs associated with the delay. “The way our deal was struck with Boeing,” Saretsky told analysts, “any delay that causes incremental expense for us ought to be reimbursable by Boeing.” This week, Palmer said he did not have any further information on the matter.

The wet-lease agreement is not unusual for WestJet. It recently had a deal, which expired earlier this year, in which Thomas Cook Airlines operated its flights between Alberta and Hawaii using Boeing 757s. After using its own 767s to Hawaii this winter, WestJet plans to deploy them in the spring and summer from six Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, to London Gatwick Airport.

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