Avis du vol entre Halifax et Toronto en classe Affaires avec WestJet

【 Swoop in Style 】

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report (FR)!!

This is FR number 3 in my Easter trip and will cover the first leg of my journey from Halifax to New York. This will be my 2nd time in New York following my trip last year. However, this time, I'll be using the city purely as a transit stop. This trip was booked on Delta flying 'Premium', which is basically business class (or in Delta's case, Domestic First). This is my first time flying business in North America, so I'm really excited to see what it's like, especially since NA Airlines actually has proper business class seats, unlike their European counterparts, who simply block off the middle seat in economy and call it 'business'. 

As for price, I paid CA$396 (US$288, €244) for a single flying Halifax to LaGuardia via Toronto on Business class. This was booked with Delta using their codeshare with WestJet and is pretty cheap considering the cost of flying in Canada. 

No, I've not forgotten about the Air Transat FR, it'll come out… soon

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

【 Halifax Stanfield International Airport 】

The drop-off area outside the airport. I got here around 4am. 

The check-in area inside.

For some reason, I wasn't able to check in on Delta's website; I'd enter all of my information, hit submit, and be redirected back to the same page with no error, forcing me to re-enter everything again. I tried a couple of times before giving up. Weirdly, it seemed that the check-in agent also had the same (or a similar) issue. He was getting confused about why he couldn't enter my details in the system. After 3 minutes, he looked at me and asked, "Is New York a city or a state?' It's definitely an… unusual… question to be asked, especially during check-in in Canada. But apparently, the system was getting confused that he entered 'New York' for both the city and the state haha. Fortunately, after 3 minutes or so, it got worked out (I guess he entered 'New York City' as the city instead?), but yeah, an interesting encounter. 

After checking in, you have to put your checked luggage into a scanner (see right). If everything's good, it goes onto the belt and gets sent off. It's normal for US destinations, although here it seems to be required for all passengers. 

Let's head through security.

Halifax might be a small airport, but it definitely has character - I mean, they've literally got a plane suspended on the ceiling!! 

Security took less than 3 minutes with it being this early. 

There are a good number of food options and duty-free stores for a small airport, but most of them were closed this early. 

Departures for the morning - we are the 2nd departure of the day.

Anyway, here are the gates. 

【 The flight 】

Flight time to Toronto will be just over 2 hours and here's our route:

Photo of the seatback pocket. WestJet's Boeing 737-800s have a 2-2 configuration for business (or Premium, as WestJet calls it), unlike the 3-3 configuration for economy. 

This aircraft is equipped with 12 premium seats and features an adjustable headrest. Each seat has 38" of pitch, 20" of width, and 5" of recline. 

As you can see, legroom is pretty good. 

View out of the window. 

Some information about our plane:

Type: Boeing 737-800
Registration: C-FYPB
First flight: 14 November 2015
Age: ~10 years
Config: C12/Y162

Still painted in the Swoop livery (hence the pink winglet in the photo above), the aircraft was delivered to WestJet in 2015 before being transferred to subsidiary Swoop in 2019. As part of that move, Swoop reconfigured the aircraft to an all-economy cabin. It was transferred back to WestJet in 2024 and had the standard WestJet config refitted sometime since, although it's interesting that they kept the livery.

In the right armrest is the tray table.

And nicely hidden in the left armrest is the universal power outlet. 

Button to recline the seat. 

Pushback on time with a nice view of the terminal and all the planes parked here overnight. 

As is usual in Canada in winter, deicing is required and performed on a de-icing pad. 

Takeoff!! Bye bye Halifax!

A hint of daylight as we head west towards Maine.

Let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket. It includes a safety card…

A guide for the onboard Wi-Fi - I admit, I was way too tired and forgot to check it out, but apparently, WestJet Rewards members get free Wi-Fi.

… and an in-flight magazine. It's pretty rare to see them these days. 

Sunrise over the USA-Canada border. 

Still a ton of snow in this part of the world - it's pretty crazy how much colder it is here compared to the UK, even though London is further north than Nova Scotia. (For context, the day before this flight, London was around 15°C compared to Halifax's chilly -3°C).

Shortly after, the crew came around with a choice of snacks and drinks. Premium passengers get to choose anything off the buy-on-board menu for free. I'm not sure if you get a hot meal on longer flights, but it's not available on a two hour flight like this one. 

A closer look at the pink Swoop winglet. I wonder how many of these Swoop liveried 737s WestJet still has - I saw at least one more in Toronto. 

Starting our descent into Toronto. 

Flying over North Toronto. 

Short final with a view of the Volga-Dnepr Antonov An-124. The aircraft was carrying Covid test kits from China before being stranded after Canada closed its airspace to Russian carriers in February 2022.

Welcome to Toronto! We arrived 10 minutes early. 

Taxiing past an Air Transat A330-200 heading to Punta Cana (PUJ) and another Swoop-liveried WestJet Boeing 737-800.

Parked next to a Flair Boeing 737 MAX 8 heading to Vancouver (YVR).

【 Toronto Pearson International Airport 】

As usual for domestic flights, you exit the aircraft straight into the gate. 

I have three hours before my flight to New York. All passengers going to the USA are required to return to the check-in area and go through security and immigration again, like all non-transiting passengers. 

Quick photo of the duty-free area. 

I'll end this FR here. The next one in this series will pick up from here and will cover my flight from Toronto to New York. It was supposed to be with Delta Connection on the CRJ900… but that didn't quite happen. Thanks for reading, and see you there! 

P.S. Check out my tourism bonus of Halifax below!