Flair Airlines CEO says carrier back on a growth trajectory

Flair Airlines has taken its share of lumps through the frantic post-pandemic travel surge, but the Edmonton-based airline’s CEO, Stephen Jones, said the ultra-low-cost (ULC) carrier is back on a growth trajectory. In a brief media appearance in Winnipeg on Wednesday touting the airline’s economic impact in Winnipeg, Jones said the seizure of four of its leased Boeing 737’s in March is “well and truly in the rear view mirror.” In fact, it just added two brand new Boeing 737 Max aircrafts, bringing its fleet up to 21. Although the airline has been in operation in one form or another since 2005 when it was just a charter company — it launched as an ULC carrier as NewLeaf out of Winnipeg in 2016 — it was ground virtually to a halt during and immediately after the pandemic. In April 2021 it was only flying one plane. It’s now up to 21 and Jones is out there trying to show the market it is back with a renewed commitment to operational excellence. Among other things it’s established what it believes is the industry-leading level of transparency, releasing monthly performance metrics including on-time performance, which for June was at the credible levels of 77.4 per cent (on-time within 15 minutes of scheduled times) and load factors which were at 89 per cent meaning Flair is filling up its planes. But it’s certainly not been smooth sailing. Story has more.<br/>