Are you aware of this new flight option?

I'd seen that in the paper today...have never used West Jet, always seems Air Canada fits our needs/schedule, but from Hali to St Johns is very quick, and direct to Dublin would be awesome (I'd much rather change planes in Nfld then London...or Toronto)...hopefully they expand more...

@Nicole,

I tried a WestJet / KLM combination last year, and it worked quite well, although of course using KLM always involves a layover at AMS. I also tend to use Air Canada most of the time, as their schedules are much easier to work with and with their code share partners, I can usually find flights to just about anywhere. I always check Air Transat but they typically only have one or two flights a week to some destinations, so they just won't work for me most of the time (I have used them in the past).

Cheers!

Wow - I can't get over the flying time or the price. That's barely enough hours for jetlag to set in, and it's less flying time than NYC to L.A. I'm already thinking of a future trip: spend some time in Montreal, Newfoundland and Labrador, and then fly to Ireland to continue the vacation...

@George,

They just announced the new service, so probably won't have the flights or prices listed in their schedules yet. I suspect the $199 pricing won't last forever.

I'd probably find it somewhat of an odd experience to be crossing the pond in such a relatively small aircraft. With the direct flight from Toronto, I'm sure they'll be filling the fuel tanks right to the top when they land in St. John's.

I'm assuming the flight will be a direct line over the Atlantic between the two cities, rather than arcing upwards over Greenland and Iceland. The direct line distance appears to be about 3300 kM, and the "ER" version of the 737 has a range of over 10K kM, so there would be lots of fuel. Travelling over water for most of the flight is something that WestJet already does with their Vancouver-Hawaii flights.

It will be interesting to see how well they do with this new service.

Ah, the joys of competition. Aer Lingus will fly non-stop Toronto-Dublin in the spring, using a B-757, also a narrow-body jet but at least one designed for long-distance trips.

I tried some sample dates and both Air Transat and Aer Lingus run about the same or cheaper, and non-stop from Toronto. And the connection times in Newfoundland are atrocious!

I should add that I avoid West Jet like the plague. Never been on a flight of theirs that went remotely on time and I find their staff incredibly unprofessional. I am willingly paying for my baggage with Air Canada next February (Caribbean cruise) to avoid West Jet (who do bags for free).

I choose not to fly over the ocean (either one) on a single isle aircraft such as the 737 or the 757. There is just too much traffic competing for that single isle space on a long flight for my liking. My 767 plane that I fly over the Pacific from US to Hawaii just got changed to an AirBus which is my preferred aircraft that I will also be flying on to Europe this coming summer. I just need to get up and walk around on those long flights due to back problems so I like those two isle planes.

@George,

Yes, I knew the flights from Toronto would NOT be non-stop. The wording in my post above specified "direct service (ie: "one stop in St. John's but no change of planes) from Toronto, and connecting flights from other destinations in Canada".

This will seemingly open up much lower flight options from North America. Once in Dublin, it will be easy to use one of the budget flights from there to other points in Europe (although I'll try to avoid RyanAir at all cost!).

While the single-aisle aircraft also makes me a bit nervous, the flight is only about four hours, so it should be easy to tolerate.

Cheers!