{"id":724630,"date":"2026-06-09T06:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724630\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T06:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:43:17","slug":"westjet-codeshare-deal-with-icelandair-to-offer-easier-access-to-europe-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/724630\/","title":{"rendered":"WestJet codeshare deal with Icelandair to offer easier access to Europe \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Travellers using WestJet\u2019s new direct flights to Iceland from Winnipeg will be able connect across Europe starting next summer.<\/p>\n<p>WestJet Airlines signed a codeshare deal with Icelandair on Sunday that will allow travellers to fly to more than 10 cities in Europe via Iceland. The final list of cities will be announced later this year, and the network will be in place in time for next summer\u2019s travel season, said WestJet director of airport affairs and alliances Jared Mikoch-Gerke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re finalizing all of the points within Europe that it will connect to, but we\u2019re looking at all of the major different destinations, so London, Paris, Frankfurt, and other in-demand destinations that Winnipeggers and Manitobans are looking to travel simply to,\u201d Mikoch-Gerke said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4293199_web1_251118-WestJet-Iceland-0007.jpg\" data-pswp- data-pswp-width=\"2048\" data-pswp-height=\"1366\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4293199_web1_251118-WestJet-Iceland-0007.jpg\" alt=\"MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES&#10;                                April Crane, WestJet\u2019s vice-president of Communications and Engagement, was part of the team on hand in Winnipeg last fall to announce the new direct route to Iceland. The flights are expected to run once a week starting June 27.\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n<p>April Crane, WestJet\u2019s vice-president of Communications and Engagement, was part of the team on hand in Winnipeg last fall to announce the new direct route to Iceland. The flights are expected to run once a week starting June 27.<\/p>\n<p>Starting June 27, WestJet will offer direct flights between Winnipeg and Keflavik, Iceland, located 50 kilometres southeast of the capital, Reykjavik.<\/p>\n<p>The flight will run once a week on Saturdays until Sept. 6.<\/p>\n<p>Mikoch-Gerke described the airline\u2019s expansions as \u201cconfidence in Winnipeg as a market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had some pretty regular growth there over the last couple of years, and as we\u2019ve added new markets, Winnipeggers have accepted those markets, they\u2019ve performed well and met our expectations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Icelandair travellers will also be able to connect with one stop to a collection of Canadian cities across WestJet\u2019s domestic network.<\/p>\n<p>Travel Manitoba called the expanded air access a positive step for the province\u2019s tourism industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know visitors from Europe are looking for experiences to connect in nature and our world class wildlife viewing, to explore festivals and cultural activities, to enjoy incredible culinary experiences and also for bucket list adventures. Manitoba offers all of that and more,\u201d said Travel Manitoba chief operating officer Angela Cassie in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/newslettericons-samyn.jpg\" alt=\"Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WestJet is also set to begin seasonal non-stop service to Iceland from Edmonton later this month.<\/p>\n<p>The airline\u2019s seasonal route from Calgary to Iceland is also set to return for the 2026 summer travel season.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement with Icelandair follows a codeshare agreement between WestJet and Fiji Airways announced last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/malak-abas-mug.jpg\" class=\"author-portrait\" alt=\"Malak Abas\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Malak Abas<br \/>Reporter<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/breakingnews\/2026\/06\/08\/mailto:malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca\" class=\"social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/breakingnews\/2026\/06\/08\/tel:204-697-7248\" class=\"social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/biographies\/malak-abas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/about-us\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/free-press-101\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block-non-subscriber\">Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"block-subscriber\">Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travellers using WestJet\u2019s new direct flights to Iceland from Winnipeg will be able connect across Europe starting next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-724630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}