Why WestJet Made its Largest-Ever Aircraft Order

Along with 787s, the airline is adding seven more Dreamliners so it can grow its long-haul hub in Calgary. CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech told me WestJet had to act quickly to protect its future.

Dear readers,

Not long after Alexis von Hoensbroech arrived as WestJet’s CEO in February 2022, he examined the financial results of the airline's seven Boeing 787s — which mainly flew from Canada's largest markets, such as Toronto, to major European tourist destinations — and he was not impressed.

"When I looked into the performance, they didn't perform overly well,” he told me.

Roughly four months later, as part of a major revamp of the airline’s strategy, von Hoensbroech announced two changes to the Dreamliner program: one the CEO may regret now, and another that proved prescient. First, the airline opted not to take the final three 787-9s in its orderbook. Second, rather than fly the Dreamliners from multiple markets, WestJet concentrated them in Calgary and built a connecting schedule to feed them. "This move has really paid off," von Hoensbroech said in an interview with me last week. "They have been very, very strong."

I like von Hoensbroech because he's direct and honest, qualities that he jokingly (or maybe not jokingly?) blames on his German background. In an interview at the IATA Annual General Meeting in June 2024, he admitted he might have erred by not taking the final three aircraft, and he teased that he might order more. Last week, WestJet made it official, committing to seven more 787s, plus four options, with the first delivery in 2031. WestJet also announced an order for sixty 737 Max 10s (with 25 options) with the first deliveries in 2029.

I'll get to the Maxes soon, but first: I asked why von Hoensbroech decided now to double the Dreamliner fleet. The first reason is obvious: he's convinced that a widebody operation can work. The seven airplanes in the current fleet fly to Europe in the summer, major Asian cities year-round, and sun destinations (like Cancún and Hawaii) in the winter, where they aren’t a perfect fit but “at least they don't lose money,” he said.

With 14 Dreamliners, von Hoensbroech said route planners might expand to Australia (a strong counter-seasonal market for Europe) or destinations in deep South America that the Maxes cannot reach. Though he cautioned the airline won’t make those decisions for at least five years,¹ von Hoensbroech said he expects the new airplanes will fly from Calgary, citing the power of the local market (the Dreamliners carry about 45-50 percent local traffic) and the scale of the hub. "I've really been surprised at how well it works," he said.²

The second reason for the Dreamliner order was the corporate version of FOMO — if it didn’t order them now, WestJet might not have the opportunity to grow long-haul departures for a long time. It might blame United for this, as CEO Scott Kirby has said that a big reason United ordered 100 Dreamliners in 2022 (and then 50 more a year later) was to move the front of the line with Boeing and perhaps block others from similar growth.

WestJet is a very good Boeing customer, too, with roughly 150 Boeing 737s in service. But it only has so much leverage, and von Hoensbroech said now was the time to join the widebody queue.

"If you go to Boeing now and you want to buy some Dreamliners, you get delivery positions well in the 2030s," he said. "If you don't get an order in now, you may actually be caught on the wrong foot a couple of years from now, because then you will have no chance to get any airplanes."

Read on for some highlights from my interview with von Hoensbroech, including whether WestJet plans to use these airplanes to reignite a market share battle with Air Canada, why the CEO prefers not to lease aircraft directly from lessors, why he’s confident that WestJet eventually will get the Max 10, and why he thinks concern about the durability of the U.S. premium boom is overblown.