CANADA: WestJet Flight Diverted To Pearson International Airport In Toronto

A WestJet flight that was supposed to land at the Region of Waterloo International Airport on Friday afternoon had to land in Toronto instead.

It was due to what the airline is calling a "mechanical reason,"

Flight 556 landed safely at Pearson International Airport.

The 95 passengers on the plane then continued their journey back to Kitchener via bus.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. is a Canadian airline founded in 1996. It began as a low-cost alternative to the country's competing major airlines.

WestJet provides scheduled and charter air service to more than 100 destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

WestJet is currently the second-largest Canadian air carrier, behind Air Canada, operating an average of 777 flights and carrying more than 66,130 guests per day.

In 2018, WestJet carried 25.49 million passengers, making it the ninth-largest airline in North America by passengers carried.

WestJet is a public company with more than 14,000 employees, and is not part of any airline alliance. It operates three variants of the Boeing 737 Next Generation family, the Boeing 737 MAX, as well as Boeing 767 and Boeing 787 aircraft, on select long-haul routes.

WestJet has two direct subsidiaries, WestJet Encore which operates the Bombardier Q400, and WestJet Link, which operates the Saab 340B. The airline's headquarters is located adjacent to the Calgary International Airport.

In 2018, WestJet had passenger revenues of CAN$4.733 billion.

WestJet is operated by WestJet Airlines Ltd., a public company, incorporated and domiciled in Canada. Its shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol WJA.

As a result of the 100% offer from Onex Corporation in April 2019, it emerged that as of June 2019, Silchester International Investors was WestJet's largest shareholder with 16.5% of the float, while Letko Brosseau and Associates owned 10% of the company.

The parent company's accounts include various directly wholly owned subsidiaries, also incorporated in Canada, including WestJet Vacations Inc., WestJet Encore Ltd. and Swoop.

On 13 May 2019, the company announced that it had accepted an offer from Onex Corporation to purchase the company, a $5-billion deal that would require shareholder approval in July and regulatory approval.

The Onex offer was for $31 a share, substantially higher than the closing price of approximately $18 at the close of trading on the previous business day.

WestJet and WestJet Encore currently fly to 108 destinations in 25 countries throughout North and Central America, the Caribbean and Europe including 36 cities in Canada and 23 in the United States.

WestJet's largest hub in terms of daily departures is Toronto Pearson International Airport, the airline's main connection point in Eastern Canada and Calgary International Airport, the airline's main connection point in Western Canada.

WestJet provides the most Canadian flights to Las Vegas and Orlando, offering non-stop routes some of them seasonal from nine Canadian cities to Las Vegas and eleven to Orlando.

Since 2008, WestJet is the largest international carrier, by volume of passengers, flying into Las Vegas. WestJet also serves 20 destinations in the Caribbean and seven in Mexico, some on a seasonal basis.

In July 2015, WestJet announced flights to London Gatwick Airport operated by Boeing 767 aircraft, which had not previously been part of the airline's fleet, starting spring 2016.

In January 2018, WestJet announced its first flight to mainland Europe. WestJet started flying between Halifax and Paris in May 2018. The airline in this route is being operated with its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

In October 2018, new international destinations and routes were announced. Starting in 2019, WestJet began direct flights from Calgary to Dublin and Paris. WestJet is using its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to fly these new routes.

In addition, the current Calgary to London Gatwick Airport route, which was formerly served by WestJet's Boeing 767 aircraft, has been replaced by new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

At the end of October, WestJet also announced two new destinations. It began flights between Calgary and Atlanta, WestJet's expected joint-venture carrier Delta Air Lines largest hub, in March 2019. WestJet is the only carrier operating a direct route between Calgary and Atlanta.

The airline also announced flights between Toronto and Barcelona, its second destination in mainland Europe which began in May 2019.