Flair plans to add flights to London as part of aggressive growth strategy
Before its first flight has lifted off the London International Airport tarmac, Flair Airlines already is planning to add more flights to its local service.
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Before its first flight has lifted off the London International Airport tarmac, Flair Airlines already is planning to add more flights to its local service.
In a Wednesday announcement, the discount carrier unveiled an aggressive growth strategy for 2023 to meet pent-up demand from travellers following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Southwestern Ontario figures in that strategy and more flights are coming, said Scott McFadzean, chief executive of the London International Airport.
“We are in active negotiations with them to add additional service for 2023 and beyond,” he said. “We are hoping we can build on this partnership.”
In an online news conference Wednesday, Flair officials said the carrier hopes to increase capacity 50 per cent across its entire network by adding flights in nearly all markets in 2023 and adding seven new aircraft, bringing the total fleet to 27.
Eric Tanner, vice-president of revenue management and network planning for Flair, confirmed the airline plans to add service to London.
“We are always looking ahead for opportunities. It is a market we would like to grow in the future. At some point we will add service to that market.”
Flair will begin its weekly flights to Tucson, Ariz., from London Dec. 4 and the airline has noticed strong local interest, he added.
“We see that Tuscon is popular. We have been embraced by the community there.”
Talks between the airport and Flair are focused on adding direct flights to other Canadian cities, McFadzean said.
“Summer flights would be domestic and winter they would go to the south,” he said. “They have been in business about two years and they are growing quickly. We want to build this relationship as they grow.”
Flair’s commitment is another sign the airport, which saw flights greatly reduced for the two years of the pandemic, is bouncing back.
At the London airport, Air Canada flights, up to five times a day to Toronto, will slow to three, and WestJet’s three daily flights to Toronto will be reduced to two. WestJet still offers flights three times a week to Calgary that during the summer was daily service.
Swoop offers three flights a week to Edmonton – it was four a week during the summer – and twice weekly flights to Mexico and Florida. Sunwing, being bought by WestJet, will have weekly flights to the Dominican Republic and weekly to Cuba and Mexico. Air Transat will offer flights weekly to Cancun and the Dominican Republic.
“We are working to build business back and we are in active discussion with all airlines,” McFadzean said. “It is positive for the industry.”
Flair also offers service from Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor airports.
Flair, headquartered in Edmonton, has more than 1,000 employees and uses Boeing 737 aircraft.
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