Flair Airlines to make its debut in Saskatchewan

Discount carrier Flair Airlines will soon have flights going into and out of Saskatoon and Regina.

In a release Thursday, the airline said it will begin service at the Regina airport on Aug. 24 and at the Saskatoon airport Aug. 27.

For Regina, Flair will offer service to and from Toronto and Vancouver on Fridays and Mondays. Saskatoon will have Flair service to and from Toronto and Vancouver on Thursdays and Sundays.

The airline also is adding domestic service for the cities of Prince George, Fort McMurray and Victoria.

“We continuously receive requests from our passengers to service these communities,” CEO Jim Scott said in the release. “Many of these areas are experiencing reduced accessibility, and we know that Canadians need affordable airfares now more than ever.

“We are committed to supporting these communities across the country as they safely reopen to travel.”

The airline’s arrival comes as welcome news for the vice-president of business development and service quality at Saskatoon’s John G. Diefenbaker Airport.

“It’s good for us to get some more seats in the market. Right now with everything going on with COVID, there are not a lot of flights currently operating out of the airport, so we’re limited for what’s available for seat capacity, so it’s great to get some of that capacity into the market as people do travel a little bit,” said CJ Dushinksi.

Dushinski says since the pandemic hit, it has been difficult for airports and airlines, and everyone is looking for any opportunities that can help the situation.

“I think it’s been a difficult market for most of our Canadian airlines over the past several months,” Dushinski said. “You know the markets some of the airlines would traditionally fly into in the United States or elsewhere have been closed, so our Canadian airlines are looking for other opportunities domestically to pick up capacity.”

Dushinski says at its worst, the Saskatoon airport was down to about 20 passengers a day back in April. She says it is climbing back a bit and is now around 400 passengers a day, but that’s still a long way from the 3,000 a day the airport normally sees.

At the end of June, Air Canada announced it was dropping three flights from Regina and one from Saskatoon.

James Bogusz, the president and CEO of the Regina Airport Authority, is also excited to see more flights coming into the airport.

“Right now, we’ve been seeing incredibly limited flights to just Canadian cities with the (Canada-U.S.) border closure right now,” he said. “What Flair is doing is they’re adding service twice a week (to Toronto and Vancouver).”

Bogusz said because Flair is a discount airline, he anticipates that Regina travellers will be looking forward to checking out the airline instead of “getting in the car and trying to drive to one of these places.”

“We’re welcoming (Flair) with open arms and we’re certainly going to let the community know that we have another airline serving our market,” he said.

“It’s almost an impossible thing to think about during COVID, but (Flair operators) were ready and they’ve been hearing a lot from southern Saskatchewan’s residents about wanting to see a new service into our market — and they’ve delivered.”