WestJet Airlines of Canada said it plans to expand its seasonal service to Hawai'i starting next month with as many as five additional weekly flights.

In a news conference at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach hotel yesterday, WestJet CEO Sean Durfy said the carrier will begin adding new flights from Canada to Honolulu, Kona and Kahului on Nov. 15 and hopes to have as many as 23 weekly flights to the islands by the middle of December.

The company will eventually reduce the weekly flights to about seven by summer, he said.

The low-cost carrier currently operates about 18 weekly flights to Hawai'i.

The expansion comes as passenger capacity to Hawai'i from the U.S. West Coast has stagnated because of high fuel prices and the twin failures this spring of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines.