Flair CEO Accuses Rival Of Conspiring To Have Planes Seized

This rumour has been out there ever since the news of the groundings broke. I have no doubt that the fundamentals are true - Flair has "too cheap" leases locked in at the bottom of the market and the lessor wants any excuse to repo and remarket the aircraft.

Sean M. --- I agree that the lessor would love to remarket the aircraft --- so why is Flair giving them the opportunity? Seems very sloppy --- the CFO isn't on top of this?

While I a happy for a disrupter to challenge the Canadian duopoly, Flair has a pretty fire operating record. They also hide behind any excuse not to refund/rebook passengers whose flights are significantly disrupted.

They really need to decide what they are, who they serve and present a product reliable enough to book.

Other than those seeking the cheapest seats, Canadian frequent flyers are very leery about their contracts being fulfilled.

Unfortunately.

Rumor was that WestJet previously declined to lease or buy planes originally destined for Flair since it would require repainting and retrofitting. Doesn't really make sense to me that WS would suddenly be buying planes when they had the offer back in Dec.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-airlines-summer-travel-demand-canada/

I used to work for Flair, and my god, Stephen is going to run this airline into the ground. I have never met somebody more arrogant in my entire life. I cannot wait for him to get a defamation lawsuit for these comments. Man screams SDE and this shows. Pay your leases ontime. Also you still owe me $1000 in missing wages, how about answer your emails.

Don’t forget that West jet was taken private recently by a Canadian conglomerate called Onex corp . This would be Canadas Blackrock. It is a very greasy and aggressive corporation so this is completely plausible especially after the meltdown WestJet experienced this winter. They would love to replace their older 737s with these maxs.

Having watched over the years what Air Canada (then government) did to Wardair, Canadian Airlines and some others by unfair competition or outright route theft it doesn't surprise me in the least that skullduggery is part of this issue.

At one point Canadian Airlines was in trouble and American was going to inject cash through partial ownership to save them. Air Canada forced the government to block the investment by American. A couple of years later when Air Canada was going broke (justifiably) they forced the government to change all the rules so they could be saved by injections of foreign cash.

Pretty fishy, even for Canadian politics. (Note - western based airlines get the shaft, eastern based get the gold).

Flair has been behind on its payment for months:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-flair-airlines-seized-missed-payments/

It sounds like the CEO is in denial that there is a problem at the airline. Rather than buckling down and asking how he can fix it he simply buries his head in the sand and engages in blame shifting. I sure wouldn't book a ticket with them right now.

While I am all for ULCCs trying to make a go of it in Canada I think its hard to do so here. Our cities are farther apart than in other parts of the world where they succeed. It's not so easy to plan a weekend trip to another part of Canada like you can in say SE Asia or Europe. The few times I did look into booking Flair in the past for some weekend trips the scheduling didn't make it work. That means they have a narrow window to make profits every year (March break, summer and Christmas). We also lack the population to support a robust airline industry.

I think Julia nailed it. This wasnt a few days but 4 to 6 months arrears in rent. Hardly a "cheque's in the mail" occurrence. ExFlairie's description of Stephen Jones was word for word what my ex boss who interviewed with F8 and Jones had to say. He didnt get the job probably because his knowledge and experience in the industry would have been a bit too much for Jones' tiny ego. You just had 4 airplanes repossessed and you're telling your pax that it was an unscheduled maintenance event??? REALLY? Things have got so bad in YYZ I was forced to use Air Canada Vacations which I have never done before. :(0. WG used to be a fantastic airline until they got rid of their seasoned, well respected and liked and highly competent CEO because little Hunter wanted to play CEO. WS has decided their fortunes rest with flying 789s out of Grand Prairie and dumped E Canada. The industry up here is a mess with the shining beacon being AC. Oy!

Time to let some grown up airlines into the mix