Canadian airline WestJet is giving passengers from the city of Edmonton one-stop access to a world of destinations via Atlanta.
The daily flight from the Alberta provincial capital took off on April 29, starting the first route ever linking the two cities.
WestJet operates a longstanding partnership with Delta Air Lines, the dominant carrier at the world’s busiest airport at Hartsfield–Jackson. Their deal provides for reciprocal benefits on their loyalty programs and code-sharing on U.S.-Canada flights.
The two carriers called off a proposed joint venture in late 2020 after the U.S. Department of Transportation made anti-trust immunity contingent on giving up slots at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
That hasn’t stopped the duo from deepening the relationship; the Edmonton route becomes the fourth WestJet is offering to Atlanta, starting with a route from Calgary (Alberta’s commercial center) in 2019. WestJet also flies to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Deeper access for WestJet, a Delta partner, comes as Montreal-based Air Canada, a Star Alliance member with United Airlines, has been expanding in the Atlanta market since 2022, when it launched twice-daily flights to Montreal to complement its existing service to Toronto four times daily.
Alberta is one in the minority of Canadian provinces who sit out the Southeast U.S. Canadian Provinces Alliance, or SEUS/CP, a group of Southern states that meets with their northern counterparts annually for business matchmaking and investment prospecting. Alberta has expressed interest in joining in the past. The next meeting will be held in August in Biloxi, Miss. Last summer, a Georgia delegation joined the event in Newfoundland and Labrador; the conference switches between the U.S. and Canada each year. (Contact Tobias Kim at the Georgia Department of Economic Development to learn more about joining the state’s delegation.)