Review of WestJet Encore flight from Calgary to Regina in Economy

The Journey so Far…

Flying from Calgary Airport (YYC)

I had a five-six hour connection at Calgary Airport. I left the airport to visit an Aviation Museum to the South of the Airport, which was better than skulking around the Terminal at YYC Airport!

I did a feature on the museum in the Tourism Bonus at the end of the report, I hope you enjoy and it'll give you inspiration on an extended stop between flights at YYC!

A few hours later, I got a taxi back to YYC's Domestic Terminal, dropped off at the main entrance. WestJet dominates this Terminal and the airline is the largest operator of Calgary Airport as its where the airline started operations back in 1996 with a handful of Boeing 737-200, the airline as of 2025/2026 operates all its Boeing 787 Dreamliner services from Calgary as well.

After the check in desks, there is this sculpture of a horse with a globe just before you enter the security check point. Luckily it wasn't too busy when I arrived at the checkpoint and I was through in about 10-15 minutes, but I guess it can be quite busy when you've got various long-haul flights to Europe departing as well as peak times for domestic services to major cities… my destination for this evening was Regina, Saskatchewan.

I spent a bit of time airside charging my devices ready for the flight to Regina as well as the transit over to my hotel for the night, so I didn't get to do any plane spotting, though by that time of the evening- it was basically only WestJet Boeing 737s & Dash 8 Q-400, with a few short-haul Air Canada flights… I couldn't see the international traffic from where I was.

I was due to fly from Gate A-17, which turned out not to be the gate area I expected it to be, so we'd get a proper gate to board rather than the open board in the "shed" Gates area I was dropped off at earlier on the Edmonton-Calgary Dash 8 flight!

WestJet Encore (YYC-YQR)

My flight this evening would be operated by another Dash 8 Q-400 of the WestJet Encore fleet, C-GEEN, this Q-400 was built in Toronto Downsview Airport and delivered brand new to WestJet Encore in July 2015, the aircraft's "Fleet Number" is 426. 

Despite the jet bridge boarding method, the bridge stopped just before our Dash 8- resulting in an opportunity to get a few cheeky photos on my phone of the Dash 8 Q-400 up close and personal… What a view!

Even though this plane was built by Bombardier in July 2015, the nose states its a plane of DeHavilland Canada who took over the production and up-keep of the Dash 8 program in 2019, even though DHC was the original manufacturer of the Dash 8 family from 1983-1992.

I chose Seat 17F for this flight, unlike the previous flight- this was going to be another one of many night time flights on this trip, so I opted to sit at the back, which offers a nice view of the rear half of the wing and engine, not that I was going to see much of it this evening. This was going to be a full flight this evening.

We departed on time and left Calgary, despite the night time- I got some nice views of the local area as we climbed out and headed in the direction of Regina, a short flight across the neighbouring Provinces. Calgary is the nearest major airline hub for Regina, so there's a lot of WestJet Boeing 737 & Q-400 operated flights between Regina and Calgary, as well as some longer mainline flights to Toronto Pearson, Vancouver and Edmonton which are operated between Air Canada and WestJet.

This flight would be about 90 minutes of flight time, but the crew did a more in-depth service compare to the YEG-YYC flight I took hours earlier. I took up the complimentary snack item (I chose a pretzel bag instead of the cookie) and decided to have a cup of water and ginger ale. I elected not to buy anything off the WestJet Encore café card.

As this flight was a little longer than the last one, I took the time to visit the toilet… pretty much as expected, except that on WestJet Encore- the toilets don't come with a sink. Because these planes often operate in harsh winters- they don't have the sinks installed as the water pipelines would keep freezing up every time the plane sat un-flown overnight. WestJet provide a basic hand sanitizer for cleaning your hands.

The flight passed uneventfully, and as we neared the Regina Airport- I was able to just about see the landing gear come down from the engine.

We arrived almost half an hour early into Regina Airport, once we left the Runway we made the short taxi over to the Airport Terminal. It was a quiet time for the airport as there was only three arrivals due that evening and no further departures until the next morning.

Parking up on stand, we had another jet bridge disembarkation, which doesn't surprise me for Regina Airport given how quiet it normally is and the fact it was the middle of November, probably safer that time of year. But as I waited to be one of the last off the plane, I was able to get a good cabin shot of the Q-400 given its the last time I'll likely fly one for a while.

In the domestic area where you're dropped off, I spotted a wall with a bit of history about Regina Airport, Aviation in Saskatchewan as well as a display on Roland J Groome (1897-1935)- whom the Airport is named after.

As you can see, Regina has a small but regular network connecting to various Canadian hubs with Air Canada and WestJet, mainly Calgary, Toronto Pearson and Vancouver. A few International routes are offered to the US and Mexico by WestJet seasonally through the year and United Airlines operate a single route to their hub in Denver, Colorado with their United Express Embraer ERJ. 

It would be great if more US Hub Routes were started up in the future, but I can't see direct European routes occurring in the near term… Though eventually maybe Air Transat could fly their Airbus A321neo seasonally to London Gatwick and Paris CDG???

Looking at the arrivals board, I even saw the scheduled arrival of my flight the next evening- the Vancouver evening flight with Air Canada!

I went landside after arriving to look for the bus that would run me into the city centre. I took a walk to the check in area to get an idea where to go for the Air Canada check in desks, which I easily found with only three airline flying from Regina Airport!

Before leaving for the bus, I also noticed this interesting display by the Group SLUG- Saskatchewan Lego Users Group, they made an all Lego display of the Regina Airport- which I thought was pretty amazing and must have taken quite a bit of effort!

Overall I really enjoyed my time flying WestJet across all three flights that day, and I would love to fly them again if I ever found myself in Canada… though I guess as I've flown the Boeing 737 & Dash 8 Q-400, a flight on their Boeing 787 is now something I should tick off!