If anyone doubted WestJet’s remarkable transformation from low-cost start-up to mainstream carrier, Tuesday’s demonstration in Toronto ought to have cemented the deal.

Company officials were in The Big Smoke to talk with investors and show off models of their posh new business class cabin, which will debut on their soon-to-arrive Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. They also demonstrated their new Premium cabin seats, which will replace the current “Plus” class.

“All ten of our Dreamliners will have this layout,” WestJet Executive Vice President, Commercial, Tim Croyle told reporters. “We’ll have this on three aircraft next year for flights between Calgary and Paris, London Gatwick and Dublin.”

All ten of the Dreamliners should be running by 2020, he said.

The Dreamliners will feature 16 lie-flat seats, all with aisle access. Each seat will feature a big-screen TV, tons of entertainment and oodles of storage space, as well as fine meals. Customers who only want a partial meal will be use the WestJet “Dine on Demand” service and order something served soon after their departure if they don’t want to wait a couple hours for full meal service to begin, Croyle said.

The Dreamliners will have 28 premium seats (also quite spiffy) in a separate cabin and 276 seats in economy.

In addition, WestJet’s new Boeing 737 Max 8 planes will have fuel-efficient features that will allow the airline to fly such routes as Halifax-Paris and Calgary-Hawaii. They also recently launched Calgary-Montego Bay on the Max 8.

WestJet’s move into business class and Premium class puts them in even more of a head-to-head battle with Air Canada for lucrative routes to Europe. At the same time, their ultra-low-cost carrier, Swoop, is seeking to take business from Air Canada Rouge.

It’s a huge change from when WestJet started out as a low-cost carrier, Croyle said.

“We started with one fleet type, one product. What we have now is two different brands with WestJet and then Swoop. We have three cabins; economy, premium economy and business class. And then we also now have re-engineered our fares. So now we have a basic fare, which is our lowest price, our economy fare, which used to be our previous kind of entry-level fare, and our flex fare. We have premium, premium flex, business and business flex. So, we are catering the cabins to suit the needs of different guests and catering our fares to suit the needs of different guests.”

On top of that, the company will be unveiling its new Platinum tier for the WestJet Rewards program later this month.

Croyle said WestJet also is doing a great deal more with its airline partners. They have joint-venture applications in place with Delta Airlines, requests which would allow the two companies “to almost act like one airline.”

They also are doing more with Air France and KLM and with Qantas. WestJet on Tuesday announced it has expanded its codeshare relationship with Qantas by placing its WS code and flight numbers on Qantas-operated flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Croyle conceded it was a challenging year for the Calgary-based airline. Alberta’s economy is in rough shape, to say the least, and that’s not helping.

“It’s one of our three hubs. Over the last couple years, we’ve developed a lot more connecting traffic from other parts of western Canada” and even from the west coast of the U.S., which puts more bums in seats on flights out of Calgary, he said.

Rising fuel costs have been an issue for all airlines. The potential WestJet pilots’ strike this year, which was ultimately averted, also didn’t help the bottom line. In fact, WestJet this year incurred its first loss in 13 years.

But officials said they’re cutting some $200 million in costs and making other changes, including the addition of the Dreamliner, that they think will put them on solid ground for years to come.

They told investors on Tuesday that they expect a compound annual growth rate of greater than 40 per cent from 2018 to 2022.

Chief executive Ed Sims said recent revenues were “nowhere near” the company's potential.