{"id":46858,"date":"2026-05-15T17:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/46858\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:28:23","slug":"inside-westjets-calgary-maintenance-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/46858\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside WestJet\u2019s Calgary maintenance hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC08061 WestJet chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech. (Credit: Courtesy\/WestJet Airlines LTD) <\/p>\n

Keeping a fleet of passenger aircraft<\/a> in service is no easy feat. For Calgary based WestJet,<\/a> that means hangars, technical crews, spare engines and a growing network of suppliers close to its home base.<\/p>\n

WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech<\/a> took the Financial Post inside one of the airline\u2019s<\/a> maintenance hangars at YYC Calgary International Airport recently, showing a side that passengers rarely see: the overnight work that keeps aircraft moving, the Q400 turboprops used to serve smaller communities across Western Canada<\/a>, and the Boeing 787 Dreamliners that fly long haul routes to Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

Von Hoensbroech said WestJet\u2019s 737s and Dash 8-400 aircraft usually fly during the day and are maintained at night, while wide body aircraft like the 787 often do the opposite, flying overnight and spending time in the hangar during the day.<\/p>\n

He credited the province of Alberta with helping to support that ecosystem by attracting aviation suppliers<\/a> to Calgary. One example is the Lufthansa Technik engine facility, which allows WestJet to avoid the time and cost of shipping an engine to Europe or Asia for maintenance and instead have the work done nearby.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially important with modern aircraft engines. Von Hoensbroech said one spare GEnx engine used on a 787s has a list price of about US$30 million. A huge expense, but critical in order to keep their planes flying on time when maintenance calls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WestJet chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech. (Credit: Courtesy\/WestJet Airlines LTD) Keeping a fleet of passenger aircraft in service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20732,20733,51,20731,6808],"class_list":["post-46858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-aircraft-engines","tag-alexis-von-hoensbroech","tag-calgary","tag-maintenance","tag-westjet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}