Flair Airlines

Flair plans modest domestic winter schedule

Update: Flair has adjusted its winter schedule since this article was first published. A table below listing the number of weekly departures from Flair’s busiest cities has been adjusted to reflect the new reality.

Canadian ultra low-cost carrier Flair Airlines has released a winter schedule comprised of 124 weekly flights across the country – far less ambitious than the airline’s turbulent first year of service as a scheduled carrier.

Details of the planned flying were published Thursday. Flair plans flights to seven Canadian cities this winter, from Vancouver in the west to Toronto in the east.

Unlike rival Swoop for whom sun destinations represent fully 55% of its planned flying this winter, Flair has not published any routes to the United States. Flair was forced to retreat from several U.S. routes last winter as poor loads plagued the airline, sparking an angry outcry from passengers whose plans were cancelled with little notice.



Flair’s Executive Chairman David Tait has vowed to resume flying to the U.S., though no timeline has been laid out.

While Flair’s overall schedule will be far smaller than Swoop’s – 124 weekly flights compared to 252 – since all its flying will be domestic, Flair will actually be the larger domestic ultra low-cost carrier. Swoop, having been stung by poor loads last winter on its Canadian routes, will shift capacity to sun destinations for the winter.

Edmonton, Flair’s home base, will be the airline’s busiest city in the coming winter, 27 weekly departures. Vancouver is next with 25, and Toronto will be the origin for 18 weekly departures.

OriginWeekly departures
Edmonton26
Toronto25
Calgary25
Vancouver24

The busiest route will be between Edmonton and Vancouver, with 11 weekly departures, and several other routes will see daily service. Kelowna remains in the schedule with 4 weekly flights to Edmonton, while Halifax has been dropped for the winter.

While most of Flair’s routes are point-to-point, one so-called milk run remains in the schedule. Four times a week, Flair flight 134 will depart Abbotsford en route to Toronto, with stops in Calgary and Winnipeg, a total flying time of seven hours.

Categories: Flair Airlines