{"id":190247,"date":"2026-07-20T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/?p=190247"},"modified":"2026-07-21T11:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T11:31:40","slug":"westjet-expands-winter-2026-27-network-with-new-routes-to-merida-punta-cana-belize-san-jose-del-cabo-and-liberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/07\/westjet-expands-winter-2026-27-network-with-new-routes-to-merida-punta-cana-belize-san-jose-del-cabo-and-liberia.html","title":{"rendered":"WestJet Expands Winter 2026\/27 Network with New Routes to M\u00e9rida, Punta Cana, Belize, San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, and Liberia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>WestJet<\/strong> has unveiled its seasonal route schedule for the 2026\u20132027 winter season. The cornerstone of this network expansion is the inauguration of direct flights between Calgary and M\u00e9rida, located in the state of Yucat\u00e1n, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Operating once weekly starting December 17, this service will stand as the only direct, non-stop connection between the cultural and commercial hub of the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula and Western Canada. With this strategic move, the carrier is capitalizing on strong Canadian demand for safe, culturally rich destinations, offering seamless access to the region&#8217;s culinary heritage, architecture, and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In parallel, the Canadian carrier will boost regional connectivity by launching four additional weekly routes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Winnipeg \u2013 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic:<\/strong> Launching November 28, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Winnipeg \u2013 Belize:<\/strong> Launching December 14, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regina \u2013 San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo, Mexico:<\/strong> Launching December 14, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ottawa \u2013 Liberia, Costa Rica:<\/strong> Launching December 20, 2026.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/06\/westjet-and-icelandair-deepen-alliance-with-reciprocal-codeshare-agreement.html\">WestJet and Icelandair Deepen Alliance with Reciprocal Codeshare Agreement<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Market Positioning and Fleet Optimization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The addition of these sectors aligns with a strategy aimed at efficiently deploying capacity during the peak demand months of the Northern Hemisphere winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;These additions support the growing demand for choices in Mexico and the Latin Caribbean, while sustainably expanding our schedule and managing our fleet through the busy winter travel period,&#8221; said John Weatherill, Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer at WestJet. &#8220;We&#8217;re excited to offer more ways for our guests to swap snow boots for sandals in the destinations that matter most to them, and we look forward to the travel stories that will take off from these exciting new choices.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this announcement, WestJet reaffirms its position as Canada&#8217;s leading leisure airline for sun destinations. At the peak of the winter schedule, the carrier will connect 15 Canadian cities to 50 sun destinations, outpacing any other competitor in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of market share, the airline will retain top position by flight volume from Canada to Mexico, while maintaining its operational leadership with direct links to Belize and Liberia (Costa Rica). The airline noted that further capacity increases on its highest-yielding, mature routes will be revealed in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Group Synergy: Sunwing Vacations Bolsters Tour Package Offerings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To support the overall growth of the WestJet Group as Canada&#8217;s largest tour operator, Sunwing Vacations introduced its full winter lineup, running from November 1, 2026, through April 30, 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The vacation division confirmed three core vacation package offerings for the season:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Winnipeg \u2013 Punta Cana:<\/strong> Operational from November 4, 2026 (previously served in 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Qu\u00e9bec City \u2013 Roat\u00e1n, Honduras:<\/strong> Operational from December 14, 2026 (previously served in 2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ottawa \u2013 Liberia:<\/strong> Operating for the first time starting December 20, 2026.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, Sunwing Vacations confirmed the return of packages to high-demand seasonal hotspots such as Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and the island of Roat\u00e1n in Honduras. The complete schedule is now open for booking across its official channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WestJet Group&#8217;s strategy for the 2026\u20132027 season reflects a fine-tuning of capacity allocation, leveraging its Calgary hub infrastructure to open unserved markets like M\u00e9rida, while utilizing direct point-to-point flights from secondary gateways (Winnipeg, Regina, Ottawa, and Qu\u00e9bec City) to optimize Available Seat Kilometer (ASK) yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"related-topics\">Related Topics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-post-grid uagb-post-grid  uagb-post__image-position-top uagb-post__image-enabled uagb-block-9e302684     uagb-post__items uagb-post__columns-2 is-grid uagb-post__columns-tablet-2 uagb-post__columns-mobile-1 uagb-post__equal-height\" data-total=\"545\" style=\"\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<article class=\"uagb-post__inner-wrap\">\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='uagb-post__image'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a 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class=\"uagb-post__title uagb-post__text\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/07\/aena-plans-major-transformation-for-barcelona-el-prat-terminal-2-with-e153-million-investment.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Aena Plans Major Transformation for Barcelona-El Prat Terminal 2 with \u20ac153 Million Investment<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='uagb-post__text uagb-post-grid-byline'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"uagb-post__text uagb-post__cta wp-block-button\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"wp-block-button__link uagb-text-link\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/2026\/07\/aena-plans-major-transformation-for-barcelona-el-prat-terminal-2-with-e153-million-investment.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"bookmark noopener noreferrer\">Read More<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WestJet has unveiled its seasonal route schedule for the 2026\u20132027 winter season. The cornerstone of this network expansion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":105394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[230,246,198,481],"class_list":{"0":"post-190247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-releases-and-promotions","8":"tag-airline","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-flights","11":"tag-westjet-2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-768x384.jpg",768,384,true],"large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"pk-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",80,40,false],"pk-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",300,150,false],"csco-small":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-80x80.jpg",80,80,true],"csco-intermediate":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"csco-thumbnail":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-380x220.jpg",380,220,true],"csco-thumbnail-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"csco-thumbnail-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-380x190.jpg",380,190,true],"csco-medium":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-medium-alternative":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max-560x336.jpg",560,336,true],"csco-medium-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-large-uncropped":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false],"csco-extra-large":["https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/WestJet-B737-max.jpg",800,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Redacci\u00f3n - Aviaci\u00f3n al D\u00eda","author_link":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/author\/aad"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"WestJet has unveiled its seasonal route schedule for the 2026\u20132027 winter season. The cornerstone of this network expansion&hellip;","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190248,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190247\/revisions\/190248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aviacionaldia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}