Flair Airlines CEO says spring flight cuts not a reflection of finances
Flair Airlines is putting up fewer flights domestically in Canada this spring, but the low-cost carrier’s CEO says it’s part of a broader push for the airline to fly into more sunny destinations.
The Edmonton-based low-cost airline is flying roughly 600 fewer flights in March, April and May compared with the same months in 2023, according to data provided to Global News by Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
That means fewer domestic flights departing from the carrier’s major hubs, including Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.
Specifics of the reduced schedule were first reported by The Globe and Mail on Friday. Global News requested comment from Flair Airlines about the reported cuts on Friday, but did not receive a response until after publishing.
Flair Airlines provided a statement from CEO Stephen Jones to Global News on Friday afternoon, largely pushing back against suggestions that the spring flight schedule had been recently changed.
In fact, Flair set its spring schedule in August 2023, according to the statement, “reflecting a network tailored to meet the wants and needs of Canadian travellers.”
That includes increasing Flair’s flight capacity to warm-weather destinations such as Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean with more than 20 new winter sun routes, Jones said.
That’s a pivot for Flair from 2023, when it flew a “predominantly domestic network,” he said.
A statement from Eric Tanner, the airline’s vice-president of revenue management and network planning, sent to Global News on Wednesday confirmed Flair was reducing number of flights for the spring compared to last year.
He said there is a “broader context” to Flair’s changes, however, noting that the airline’s “available seat miles” were up four per
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