CALGARY — WestJet’s new Calgary-Seattle route has officially launched, marking the airline’s first transborder flight since the start of the pandemic.

Flight WS3612 departed Nov. 4 with 69 guests onboard. It will operate 4x/weekly at first before increasing to 2x/daily by spring 2022.

“We are thrilled to foster direct connectivity between Calgary and Seattle for the first time on a route that our guests and both cities have long awaited,” said Chris Hedlin, WestJet, Vice-President, Network and Alliances. “This route will bolster economic ties between the regions and will stimulate Alberta’s visitor economy as we continue to strengthen our transborder network from our global hub in Calgary.”

The flight also marked WestJet’s first new international route departure under the Government of Canada’s new traveller and employee vaccination policies.

“Confidence in travel is growing as demonstrated by the demand for today’s flight and policies must evolve to support the fully-vaccinated travel ecosystem,” continued Hedlin. “Today is an important milestone in our commitment to restoring Canada’s visitor economy and we are optimistic that we will continue to see progress on the easement of border policies that are impacting our guest’s ability to travel between Canada and the U.S. as seamlessly by air, as they are by land.”

The new service schedule is as follows:

Starting today, Nov. 8, foreign air travellers to the United States will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding any airplane to fly into the country.