Flair Airlines CEO hints that rival pried its seized planes away — and an expert says they’re gone for good

Flair Airlines says it has caught up on payments after four planes were seized this weekend, leaving travellers scrambling at the start of the busy March break travel season - but an aviation expert says the airline won't get the planes back.

The four airplanes were seized from airports in Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo on Saturday morning after, the discount air carrier says, it fell behind on lease payments. The seizures affected the travel plans of just under 1,900 customers.

The planes were leased to Flair by the Dublin-based company Airborne Capital.

Flair CEO Stephen Jones says they didn't expect the seizure.

We were only a few days in arrears and that's not unusual. We were about $1 million in arrears, which is about half of one day's sales for us," Jones told reporters Monday, suggesting another airline played a role in the seizure.

We do believe that there were negotiations going on behind the scenes between one of the majors and the lessor to hurt Flair, by them offering probably above-market rates for the aircraft," Jones added, adding he wouldn't name names or cite evidence.

Jones also admitted the airline's response wasn't perfect" but said that it is going above and beyond" for customers.

Jones says of the 1,900 affected, about 420 travellers were able to rebook a Flair flight within three days and the others have been offered the chance to book Flair flights further in the future. If that's not convenient for the travellers, Flair said, the company has offered to get them to their destination on other airlines, at a cost that will be reimbursed by Flair.

We're doing that because it's the right thing to do, and this was obviously unexpected and unusual and we needed to play catch-up," Jones said.

Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, said he doesn't think Flair has gone above and beyond for passengers.

At best they have complied with their legal obligations," Lukacs said, if Flair has also offered lump-sum compensation to passengers, a requirement of Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulation.

If the cause of the flight delay or cancellation is in the airline's control and unrelated to safety, small airlines owe passengers between $125 to $500 in compensation depending on the length of the delay, according to the Canadian Transportation Agency. Passengers who choose to take a refund instead of rebooking a flight must still be compensated, between $125 and $400 depending on the airline size.

The Star followed up with Flair to confirm if lump-sum compensation was offered to affected passengers but did not receive a response before deadline.

The Star reached out to Airborne Capital for a statement but did not receive a response before deadline. An employee for the company previously told the Star they weren't commenting.

The Edmonton-based discount air carrier, Flair, currently has 19 planes in its operating schedule. Three other spare planes that had been standing by for the busy summer months were added to the schedule to help fill gaps left by the seized aircraft.

This past weekend's travel disruption left passengers scrambling to make plans during March break, a busy travel time.

Stephen and Christie Martin's beach vacation for their family of five was curtailed when they got an email Saturday morning that their afternoon flight to Fort Lauderdale from Waterloo had been cancelled.

After emailingwith Flair, the family thought they could rebook on the next available flight which was 8 a.m. Sunday. Stephen went to the airport to make sure the family had seats on the next flight.

There were about two people at the counter and they were like Oh no, there's no chance you're going to get on that flight,'" Stephen said, adding he was told people were already booked on it.

Christie says she, Stephen and the kids were all looking forward to a beach vacation. There were some tears in the house at first and then they recovered quickly," Stephen said.

The family of five ended up driving to Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio. Christie said Flair customer service didn't tell them they were reimbursing passengers who booked on other airlines.

If we had known that they were going to reimburse us, we probably would have made arrangements to fly (with another airline) if we had gotten that confirmation from them," Christie said.

Ultra-low-cost carriers like Flair have to be careful when it comes to paying the bills, said John Gradek, faculty lecturer at McGill University's aviation management program. He said these airlines need to make sure they're paying staff, including pilots and mechanics, and fuel bills - but most of all, they have to pay for their airplanes.

If your airplanes aren't available, you haven't got an airline. Those airplanes are key to the viability of an airline," Gradek said.

It can cost between $250,000 and $300,000 to lease a plane per month. By this summer - the busy travel season - he said leases will cost closer to $350,000 to $400,000.

Gradek added that Flair started operations at a time when leasing companies were desperate" to get planes up in their air that had been parked during the pandemic, when travel was limited.

(Flair) got them at a good deal because the lessors were hungry to get these airplanes into the hands of an operator," he said, estimating planes were being leased at a 50 to 60 per cent discount.

But now that the market has come back strong and companies are short of planes, Gradek said leases are going for premium dollar" and he doesn't believe Flair will be seeing those four seized planes again.

Those airplanes are gone," Gradek said. They're going to somebody else and the leasing company is making more money with that."

Jones told reporters on Monday that Flair is still in negotiation with Airborne Capital and couldn't confirm if they expected to see the planes return to its fleet.

Gradek says there's definitely a place for ultra-low-cost carriers in Canada, but airlines have to consider how low is too low. He added that Canadians love cheap air fares" and don't consider the risk of the airline going bust.

Jones said despite competitors wishing they didn't exist, Flair is around for the long haul.

Flair will continue to fly and will continue to thrive and we'll continue to deliver on our mission which is to deliver affordable airfares to all Canadians," Jones said, adding travellers can continue to feel confident" with existing travel plans and booking new travel plans.