Flair Airlines planes seized in Toronto, Waterloo and Edmonton leaves passengers scrambling

Four planes flown by Flair Airlines were seized Saturday morning at Canadian airports after the discount air carrier fell behind on lease payments, the company said, stranding passengers at the beginning of the busy March Break travel season.

A spokesperson said the four Boeing aircraft were seized from airports in Toronto, Waterloo and Edmonton, but could not immediately confirm the total number of affected flights.

The airline called the seizure of the planes by Airborne Capital, the Dublin-based company that leased the planes to Flair, extreme and unusual," and said that the airline is aggrieved by this unprecedented action."

That kind of action is pretty wild in the airline industry. This doesn't normally happen in the way that it happened today," Flair spokesperson Mike Arnot said, adding that Flair has since made the payments owed to Airborne Capital.

Reached by phone, an employee of Airborne Capital said we're not commenting."

Nik Poulimenos, a real estate broker, was booked to travel with Flair from Waterloo to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he is attending a work conference - until he received an email saying the flight had been cancelled due to unanticipated maintenance delays." (A Flair spokesperson said some of the flights affected by the seizure were from Waterloo to Florida, but could not confirm which ones.)

For Poulimenos, the cancellation was a hassle - it meant driving into Toronto to catch a new, significantly more expensive flight on Air Canada, and disrupting his plans in Florida for later today. But as a father who regularly travels with his wife and four children, he said others no doubt had it worse, especially families looking forward to a warm March Break getaway.

I guarantee there's kids crying right now. There has to be," Poulimenos said.

Flair's statement said, We are truly very sorry passengers were impacted today, and are taking steps to get them on their way with minimal disruption," adding that the company would use additional planes in its fleet to minimize setbacks to passengers and does not foresee any major disruptions to its route map."

Later Saturday evening, a Flair spokesperson said that the airline had enlisted a dedicated support team to help all affected passengers find a new flight on Flair or on another airline, and that the company would cover the re-booking costs.

The four seized planes were part of a fleet of 25 operated by Flair, which is based in Edmonton. Arnot said he didn't anticipate that two others also leased from the same company would be seized since payments on those were up to date. Three other spare planes standing by for the busy summer months would be scrambled to the affected airports to plug the gaps created by the seized aircraft.

Arnot said that seasonal flux is typical in the aviation business, where operational costs - pilots, fuel aircraft - are high. He said that normally, an airline has a trusted working relationship" with the company that leases its planes.

What has happened is that there's now a commercial dispute between Airborne and Flair about payments."

Kate Allen is a Toronto-based reporter covering climate change for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @katecallen