WestJet Places Huge Boeing Order, For 737 MAX 10s & 787-9s

Canada’s second largest airline, WestJet, has just announced a massive aircraft order. With this, the airline claims to have the largest order book of any Canadian airline. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the airline evolves over the next several years.

WestJet orders 67 Boeing aircraft (737s & 787s)

WestJet has revealed that it’s buying 67 more Boeing aircraft, with options for 29 more:

• WestJet has ordered an additional 60 Boeing 737 MAX 10s, with options for 25 more
• WestJet has ordered an additional seven Boeing 787-9s, with options for four more

With this, WestJet’s total outstanding firm order book is for 123 airplanes. This order was actually placed back in June 2025, but has only now been disclosed.

For context on WestJet’s overall fleet, the airline currently has roughly 150 passenger aircraft (in addition to around 40 turboprops):

• WestJet already has seven Boeing 787-9s in its fleet, so with another seven on order, that fleet will at least double
• WestJet already had 42 Boeing 737 MAX 10s on order, so that order book is now up to 102 frames; WestJet is expected to be the launch customer for this aircraft, once it’s certified
• WestJet’s fleet otherwise consists of Boeing 737-700s, 737-800s, and 737 MAX 8s, and the airline has another 15 737 MAX 8s on order

This latest order extends WestJet’s fleet growth plans through 2034, so we can assume that some of these planes will only be delivered in the 2030s. Here’s how WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech describes this order:

“With the addition of these aircraft, WestJet has the largest order book of any airline in Canada and will double our fleet of Dreamliners, underpinning our growth plans and our commitment to affordable travel options for Canadians from coast-to-coast and exciting career paths for our people. These highly efficient and comfortable aircraft are critical to the growth and renewal of our fleet and will also significantly improve our fuel consumption.” 

It’s going to be a fascinating several years for WestJet

Canada is a challenging aviation market. On the one hand, it has the advantage of having lower costs than in the United States, purely from a currency perspective. It also has convenient geography for sixth freedom flying, like transporting passengers from the United States to Europe via Canada.

On the other hand, aviation in Canada faces endless challenges. Airport fees are high, the country is large, and the population is small, so there are only so many markets that can sustain a lot of capacity.

There are some really bright people running WestJet, though we don’t actually know everything about the carrier’s finances, given that it’s not publicly traded. We recently learned that both Delta and Korean Air are investing in WestJet, which is going to open up some cool flying opportunities.

I think doubling the Dreamliner fleet makes perfect sense, since seven planes seems like a really small fleet, with some scaling opportunities. After all, WestJet has opportunities both across the Atlantic and Pacific.

The fact that WestJet is going all-in on the Boeing 737 MAX 10 is what I find most interesting. Assuming the plane gets certified, it’ll have incredible unit costs, as it’s a very efficient jet.

The challenge, as many airlines have learned over the years, is that actually filling higher capacity jets is challenging. Airline executives are always excited when they see planes with good unit costs, but if you can only fill 60% of the seats, those better unit costs aren’t worth much.

For example, currently a good portion of WestJet’s fleet consists of 737-700s with 132 seats, which will presumably eventually be retired. Meanwhile the 737 MAX 10s will have 212 seats.

So I can’t wait to see what WestJet does with these planes, especially in winter. To be clear, I’m not suggesting WestJet is making the wrong decision here, I think it’s great to go for planes with low unit costs. But the airline is looking at quite the fleet transformation in the coming years, in terms of average capacity per plane.

WestJet’s strategy is quite the contrast to what we see at Southwest in the United States, where the airline is focused on the 737 MAX 7 and 737 MAX 8, and doesn’t even have any 737 MAX 9s or 737 MAX 10s on order.

Bottom line

WestJet has just revealed a huge fleet expansion plan, as the airline has placed firm orders for 67 additional planes, including 60 737 MAX 10s, and seven 787-9s. In total, the airline now has firm orders for 123 planes. I’m excited to see WestJet’s expansion, and in particular, how much luck the airline has filling those 737 MAX 10s.

What do you make of WestJet’s fleet expansion?