The Globe and Mail says Flair Airlines has sliced its spring schedule by more than 600 flights, but a prominent Canadian expert says the moves are "common sense."
Flair has eliminated a number of flights out of YYZ, YYC, YOW and YEG for March, April and May, the Globe said, all while adding flights to Florida, Mexico and other resort destinations, including LAS.
It’s actually a smart move, said Robert Kokonis, an aviation consultant based in Toronto.
System-wide, Flair flights are down 8% year over year. But capacity is up 4% and the average stage length of a flight is up 13.6%, Kokonis told Open Jaw.
“They’re allocating aircraft to where customers want to travel,” he said. “It’s just common sense in my opinion. More people want to fly from Toronto to Cancun in March than want to fly Toronto to Charlottetown.”
Kokonis, president of AirTrav Inc., said Flair has 19 airplanes in its fleet, the same as a year ago.
The Edmonton-based airline has 39 less flights out of YYZ than it did a year ago, but available seat miles are up more than 4%.
“They’re actually busier than they were a year ago,” he said.
By adding more long-haul flights, Flair is taking airplanes out of service for longer periods. And that means shorter-haul flights need to be cut.
“Their flight schedule was posted last year,” he said. “These are really tweaks to the schedule.”
Kokonis said Flair’s flights to CUN are up 435%, while flights to PVR are up 136%.
The Globe said the changes for Flair come at a time when the company is trying to pay back $67 million in federal taxes. Flair also has an issue with a payment-processing company, Peoples Group, which is said to be withholding $25-million in transfers to the airline, The Globe stated.
McGill University aviation expert John Gradek told CTV News that Flair is “chasing rainbows” by moving flights to sun destinations where they can maybe make more money.
“It’s a sign of desperation as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “They’re chasing opportunities that are short-term opportunities in nature. They’re going to fly to the sun markets for 10 weeks and then take the airplanes and fly them someplace else.”
