Flair Airlines CEO: Service will return to normal Wednesday after 27 flights cancelled in a week

After a week of delays and service disruptions, Flair Airlines CEO Stephen Jones says things will return to normal on Wednesday.

The airline has cancelled 27 flights since Dec. 7, while a number of others have been delayed as well as Flair has been without three aircraft from its fleet of 19.

Jones met with the media on Tuesday, as he looked to provide answers about the issues which have plagued the airline over the past week.

“So losing three from the fleet for a series of different issues has meant that we’ve had real struggles to cover the flying that we’ve got on the schedule,” the Flair CEO explained.

One of the planes has been out of service since it went off the runway at Waterloo International Airport on November 25.

“That aircraft was recovered. It was taken and serviced in the Kitchener hangar last Friday,” Jones said

“It was (then) flown to Calgary, where it still has to undergo some work. We’re waiting on a part from Boeing and that aircraft will be back in service fully on Friday.”

He said that the airline is still working to figure out what went wrong. He noted that the plane landed correctly and something went wrong after that. Jones also declared that the runway at Waterloo International Airport is long enough to accommodate Flair Airlines operations.

“Our ability to cover for the aircraft that was out of service from the overrun was really hampered by the fact that we had two other issues going on at the same time,” the Flair CEO explained.

He said that a second aircraft was also out of service, as it was going through previously scheduled maintenance south of the border, which was to take two weeks to complete.

“It came back yesterday and we also had another aircraft that had an issue with the APU, which is the auxilary power unit, the little engine that sits in the tail that provides electricity into the aircraft when the main engines and running,” Jones said.

He said there has been a delay in getting the part, but both planes will be back in service by Wednesday.

“By tomorrow, everything will be back to full schedule and look forward to delivering on our promise to customers again at that time,” Jones noted.

With three planes causing this many service disruptions, Jones was asked whether Flair had enough resources to handle these situations.

“I don’t think that we need any extra resources,” he responded. “I think we’ve got a very strong maintenance system in the business. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that these events have to have compounded, and we apologize for that.”

Flair is close to being the only game in Waterloo Region, but there are other nearby options in Toronto, Hamilton and London, and Jones is concerned about his airlines reputation among local customers.

“It’s just a real shame that this has dented some confidence,” he said. “But I believe that people will soon realized that the Kitchener-Waterloo is a fabulous place to fly through and from.”