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WestJet has announced three new direct flights to Europe out of Calgary International Airport, which president and CEO Ed Sims says will make the airline the first Canadian company to base Dreamliner aircraft out of Calgary.

The non-stop services on board new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will take travellers from Calgary to London Gatwick, Paris and Dublin. The new flights will launch on April 28, May 17 and June 1, 2019.

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The three aircraft are among 10 Dreamliners the company has on order. Plans for the next three Dreamliner airplanes will be announced this time next year.

Sims said WestJet’s decision to base the first three of those assets in Calgary is a “huge vote of confidence in the local economy and in the airport.”

The new routes will amount to a total of 14 weekly flights from the United Kingdom and Western Europe to Calgary. Sims said the airline has the potential to eventually bring more than 150,000 visitors to Calgary each year across the three new flights. The new routes will support an estimated 650 full-time jobs and $100 million in economic output, according to WestJet.