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But even if WestJet were to make a decision tomorrow on a new wide-body fleet, it would still take several years before those planes could be delivered due to the long wait times at the major aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus. Dry-leasing some of larger, wide-body aircraft in the interim would allow the airline to continue its expansion in Europe and elsewhere and reward its own pilots with the higher wages that typically come with flying larger aircraft.

“WestJet’s decision to launch 737 service to Dublin next summer was just the first step towards a fuller pursuit of the overseas markets,” said Ben Cherniavsky, Raymond James analyst, in an email.

“Wide-body flying is the next natural follow-up to this strategy. It adds further complications and costs to WestJet’s business model, but also represents an enormous opportunity for them, and a huge threat to [Air Canada],” he added.

Dry leasing wide-body aircraft would also offer an incentive for WestJet’s pilots to agree to a new contract after rejecting a tentative agreement last November.

It might also even provide a carrot for the pilots to reject an aggressive unionization drive currently underway by an organization calling themselves the WestJet Professional Pilots Association.

The WPPA has been holding town hall meetings with WestJet’s pilots in recent weeks advocating the advantages of unionization, including access to third-party mediation and arbitration in disputes, post-retirement health care benefits, and, of course, the ability to legally strike, if a dispute can’t be resolved.

Mr. Bartrem said any decision to dry lease the wide-body aircraft, if it were to be made, has nothing to do with the current contract talks with the pilots or the unionization effort underway at the airline.

“The two are totally unrelated,” he said. “This is a tactical solution to the 757 going away.”