Budget airline Flair pauses flights to and from Windsor International Airport, for now

After a brief foray in the southwestern Ontario city, Flair Airlines has paused trips to and from Windsor International Airport as it needed to reallocate planes to busier routes, according to the company's vice-president of revenue management and network planning.

"Unfortunately, during our first forays into Windsor, the market just didn't really perform that well," Eric Tanner said.

Flair stopped flights in Windsor at the beginning of March after the winter travel season ended. While the airline has no concrete plans to return to the city, Tanner said he's sure the budget airline will bring flights back at some point.

While seats were fairly full on Flair planes to and from Windsor, Tanner said other routes managed to be more in-demand, prompting the airline's move.

"At some point, you know, Windsor will be that next best opportunity and we'll be excited to return because it's a wonderful airport, it's a wonderful community and it's one that deserves more affordable airfare," Tanner said.

He added that Windsor isn't alone: Flair is also halting service to Ottawa at the end of October.

In the past, Flair had offered flights from Windsor to destinations like Cancun, Mexico, Orlando, Fla.,, Tucson, Ariz.,Vancouver and Halifax.

Mark Galvin, Windsor International Airport's president and CEO, hopes Flair returns to the area next year

"We're in constant communication with Flair. I think it's only a matter of time when they return to Windsor."  

The more passengers fly through the airport, the better for business — so Galvin said servicing flights from Flair in the past has been good for the local airport's bottom line.

Galvin said there have been been aircraft and staffing shortages across the industry recently — another challenge as the air travel sector tries to bounce back from pandemic closures.

"Everyone's feeling that sort of pain and we're just going to have to get through," Galvin said.

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With a higher capacity of flights possible across the border in Detroit, Galvin said stateside competition can be "difficult to compete with" for Windsor on some routes. But he said Canadian routes and international connections do well at the Windsor International Airport.

John Gradek, an air travel industry expert, said he's not so there'll be a Flair comeback.

"If I was Windsor, I would not hold my breath for a reappearance of Flair," said Gradek. The earliest he predicts the airline might come back to the city is next summer.

Flair has done well financially this summer, according to Gradek, but he said the airline has debts to the Canadian Revenue Agency and at times a poor reputation when it comes to passenger complaints, meaning nothing about the airline's future is certain.

"They made some money this summer. The question now is how long can that money last?"