On Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of WestJet's
newest aircraft, the Boeing 737 Max 8. Over the past few weeks the
Calgary based airline has taken delivery of two of the 50 aircraft they
have on order. Fin 302 was on display in one of their hanger bays in
Calgary for the media and WestJet employees to walk through and of
course be able to take pictures and videos of it as well. Fin 301, was
in the next bay over getting ready for the 1st Canadian flight of a
Boeing 737 Max aircraft, that is a flight wholly within Canada with
passengers on it. The event was mainly attended by employees but also
the Calgary media, some of Calgary's best known plane spotters and
Rewards Canada!
The new plane ushers in the latest technology and services for WestJet
and the airline is really excited to be adding the planes into their
fleet. While many features that the plane provides are huge for WestJet
the recurring theme was the 14% increase in efficiency the plane will
provide over the existing next generation fleet. Hopefully the decrease
in costs for fuel are passed along in the fares..... ;-). Outside of it
being way more efficient, the plane is much quieter! I sat in row 23
behind the engines and can attest to it being significantly quieter than
the current 737NG fleet. This will be much appreciated by not only
those on board the plane but even those on the ground who aren't fond of
planes flying overhead.
Some other notable changes are the Boeing Sky Interior which boasts LED
mood lighting with four different settings (Sunset, sunrise, WestJet
Blue & anight time ambient service) and of course the larger
overhead bins that on average will allow for 60 more carry on bags to be
stored on the aircraft.
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| Overhead bin |
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| Mood lighting in the ceiling |
These will also be the first narrow body aircraft in WestJet's fleet to
have ovens in the galleys which means hot meal service will be
available!
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| Ovens! |
For seating WestJet is moving to hybrid three cabin style. You still
only have two main cabins, Plus and Economy but there is also now an
Extra Leg Room section at the front of the economy cabin right after
plus. You'll know you are in these seats as they have the white
headrests but not with 'Plus' embroidered on them. Seat pitch on these
MAX aircraft are 34" for Plus and Extra Legroom sections while the rest
of Economy will range from 30" to 31". While in the air we were told
that Plus will actually be increased to 36" pitch sometime here in the
near future to match the rest of the 737 fleet. The new seats in Plus
and Extra Legroom sections feature a quilted back to further distinguish
them from economy.
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| Plus Seating |
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| Extra Legroom Seating |
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| Regular Economy Seating |
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| I had tons of room in the regular economy seat but then again I'm only 5'-9" (or 5'-8" as my kids claim) |
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| View across row 23 in the economy section |
Once through the plane on the media side we boarded fin 301 for the
sightseeing flight that took us over the Rockies, unfortunately it was
mostly cloudy over most of Southern Alberta and B.C. however the
mountains did peak through on occasion.
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| Actual sightseeing flight path in green |
During the flight there were speeches from Gregg Saretsky (WestJet's
President & CEO), Boeing's Jeff Edwards and others. There was lots
of praise for the aircraft, the WestJet employees and more. Some more
details will also revealed on more changes coming to Plus service.
Primarily WestJet is working to add a cabin divider between Plus and
Economy and they have set up a partnership with
Giusti Wines of Calgary to serve Prosecco out of big bottles to all passengers seated in Plus.
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| Prosecco being served on the flight! |
It really seems WestJet is ramping up it's higher end service and they
need to since they will be offering a full business class on their 787
planes. The better the two integrate the better and smoother it is for
the customer. Overall the flight was an awesome experience to have and
we have to pass along a big thank you to the WestJet and WestJet Rewards
team for allowing me to join them on this special occasion. What
follows is a Youtube video compiling some of the photos and videos taken
during the event.
Finally yesterday saw the first commercial flights of the plane (Flights 662
and 667) between Calgary and Toronto. Let us know if you were lucky
enough to get on one of those flights and share your thoughts below! If
not, feel free to comment anytime in the future when you do get onto one
of the new Max aircraft once they start flying full time on November
9th!
Please note that some of the statements we pass along here from WestJet are subject to change!
