An aviation expert says the seizure of four Flair planes over the weekend points to high demand playing out in the air travel industry.
Posted: Mar. 13, 2023 9:44AMMONTREAL – The head of Flair Airlines went on the offensive Monday, saying the weekend seizure of some of its planes may have been instigated by another carrier attempting to disrupt Flair’s operations.
“We’ve come in and upset the cozy duopoly, and as a consequence people want us out of business,” Jones said at a news conference on Monday. Today, we experienced some service disruptions at YEG, YYZ & YKF. We are very sorry to our passengers who were impacted. We know unforeseen interruptions to travel are stressful, and we are doing everything we can to get our customers to their destinations as soon as possible 1/4“We’re 100 per cent caught up,” he added, referring to payments on leases across its 19-plane operating fleet.
Leasing prices have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic as a result, even as domestic airfares have dropped amid a crop of new carriers – Flair, Lynx Air, Canada Jetlines – and expansions at others, said John Gradek, head of McGill University’s aviation management program. “They’re going to be stressed for cash between now and June 15,” Gradek said of smaller airlines. “They’ll be OK in the summer, but they’ll be stressed again in the fall.”
“Our response on Saturday wasn’t perfect. And we accept that,” Jones said, but insisted Flair was going “above and beyond” regulatory requirements.No flights were cancelled Sunday or Monday as the company brought out three planes that had been waiting in the wings ahead of summer travel season, on top of a fourth freshly leased plane, he said.
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