WestJet

Is WestJet safe?

Yes. In about three decades of flying, WestJet has not had a fatal accident, and in the Aviation Safety Network records we use, neither WestJet nor its turboprop arm WestJet Encore has written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary an aircraft. Few airlines of its size can say that. We score it 88, above Air Canada at 84 and level with Lufthansa. The points it loses come from a landing gear failure in 2025, a run of rough landings by Encore and a 737 fleet that is ageing at one end.

The St. Maarten gear collapse

WestJet's most serious recent event happened on 7 September 2025. Flight WS2276 from Toronto, a Boeing 737-800 with 157 passengers and 6 crew, was landing on runway 10 at St. Maarten when its right main landing gear collapsed. The right engine pod scraped along the runway and the aircraft stopped on the runway. The crew ran a planned evacuation down the slides on the left side; one person had a minor injury.

The local authority handed the investigation to Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB). Its update of October 2025 says the flight data show it was not a hard landing, despite early reports. Investigators found the gear's aft trunnion pin, which attaches the gear to the wing structure, broken in two. That gear had been overhauled in 2016. The TSB is now looking at earlier trunnion pin failures on other 737s, which makes this as much a question for Boeing and maintenance shops as for WestJet. A final report is expected in 2026 or 2027.

WestJet Encore and the Calgary landings

Shorter routes in Western Canada are flown by WestJet Encore with Dash 8-400 turboprops, sold as WestJet flights. Encore is owned by WestJet but holds its own certificate. We count it here, as we count Rouge on the Air Canada page, because it is the same company and sells the same flights.

Its record is clean of serious injuries, but 2024 was a poor year at its Calgary base:

• 13 April 2024: a tail strikeTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary on landing after a late runway change.
• 4 June 2024: a landing at 2.47 g with the aircraft not lined up with the runway; the right main gear was replaced.
• 24 October 2024: another tail strike, on a calm night with light winds.

In the October event the nose reached 7 degrees up at touchdown, according to the TSB summary on ASN. Earlier, in January 2020, an Encore Dash 8 left the cleared part of the runway in snow at Terrace, British Columbia, hit a snowbank and collapsed its nose gear. Nobody was hurt in any of these.

How old is WestJet's fleet?

About 10 years on average, according to the airline's figure at the time of its September 2025 order. That is similar to Alaska Airlines and younger than Air Canada. The fleet is almost all Boeing: 737-700s, the oldest part and being retired early, 737-800s, a growing number of 737 MAX 8s, and a small group of 787-9s for long-haul flights. In 2025 WestJet ordered 60 737-10s, the longest MAX version, which still awaits certification, and seven more 787-9s.

The 737 is not fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary, and the MAX carries the history of the two crashes of other airlines' aircraft in 2018 and 2019. It returned to service with new flight-control software and pilot training.

Ground bumps

WestJet has a long list of minor ground collisions in the ASN records: a 737 that hit a parked air force Hercules while taxiing at Comox in August 2023, a 737 that rolled into its pushback tug at Calgary in June 2023, and two WestJet 737s that touched winglets at Vancouver in January 2020. These rarely hurt anyone and we weigh them lightly, but they point at ramp procedures as an area to watch.

Flying WestJet: what to check

• See if your flight is a jet or a turboprop. Routes such as Calgary to Kamloops or Terrace are usually Encore Dash 8s. They fly lower and feel bumpier in turbulence, which is a comfort issue rather than a safety one.
• Sun destinations can mean tight airports. Some Caribbean runways, St. Maarten's among them, end at the sea and leave less margin, so expect firm landings and the odd diversion in strong crosswinds.
• Winter delays at Calgary and Toronto are often for de-icing. Accept them.

How we scored it

The accident record (96), with no deaths and no written-off aircraft in three decades, carries the score, and Transport Canada oversight scores 90. The fleet (76), serious incidents (78) and a network with mountains, snow and small airports (80) keep WestJet just below Ryanair and Qantas.