Two More International Carriers Come to Seattle
Air France and Canada’s WestJet join the ranks of global airlines opening or reopening service to the northwest US gateway
Air France and WestJet are the latest international airlines announcing the resumption of services at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The two join a raft of other global airlines, as well as a number of domestic carriers, that are relaunching SEA flights to overseas destinations.
Starting Nov. 4, WestJet is launching a new nonstop service between its hub at Calgary and Seattle. Initially the flights are scheduled to operate four times weekly, gradually increasing to twice daily by May 19, 2022. The flights will operate on WestJet Encore’s 78-seat Q400 aircraft.
The new destination means that by November, WestJet will offer 12 nonstop services to US from its Calgary hub.
Beginning Nov. 8, Air France will relaunch three times weekly flights between Seattle and Paris-Charles De Gaulle. Flights from Seattle will operate on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, aboard an Airbus A350-900 aircraft with 324 seats in a three-cabin configuration.
The return of Air France to Seattle this winter complements flights currently operated by joint venture partner Delta Air Lines. Air France will also be increasing capacity to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with the addition of two flights to reach 17 weekly flights starting November 1.
In addition to Seattle, Air France will offer service to Paris-Charles de Gaulle from 10 other US destinations: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC.
Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines announced it would be resuming operations from both Seattle and Detroit to London Heathrow, and British Airways has increased its service from SEA to LHR to seven times weekly. Meanwhile WestJet rival Air Canada is boosting its US network with up to 220 daily flights, including service to SEA.
At the beginning of the year, Qatar Airways started its new four times weekly route between Doha and Seattle, and Emirates relaunched its own four times weekly Seattle service to Dubai at the beginning of February.
