Flair Airlines postpones Tucson route

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 18, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Flair Airlines has announced the cancelation of their highly-anticipated route from Lethbridge to Tucson until next winter, due to supply chain issues impacting the availability of critical equipment.

To service flights at the Lethbridge Airport, specialized equipment is necessary including a ramp to allow passengers to board an aircraft and support mobility-restricted passengers.

Director of corporate, customer and commercial services for the City of Lethbridge, Jason Elliott said the decision to cancel the route was made collectively.

“To this point this has been nothing short of a monumental effort by all partners, the City of Lethbridge, Flair Airlines, all the airport staff, our contractors and certainly our other partners in the industry as well, so I want to thank everyone for getting us to this point and we do look forward to the ongoing partnership that will see us be successful in the season of 2023,” said Elliot.

Many of the changes currently underway at the Lethbridge Airport will continue in preparation for next year and have positioned Lethbridge well for future growth opportunities.

Chief commercial officer for Flair Airlines, Garth Lund said the right infrastructure and equipment is not quite in place at this point, which is why they had to make the difficult decision to postpone the launch of the Lethbridge – Tucson service to next winter.

“We’ll absolutely make sure that this does happen for next winter and Flair Airlines will be serving Lethbridge. Flair Airlines absolutely remains committed to the Lethbridge market,” said Lund.

The service was due to start on Dec. 1, and therefore those affected were notified on Nov. 16 as per regulations that they need to give customers at least two weeks notice of any cancellations.

Lund said demand was not an issue and therefore was not taken into account for this decision.

“Absolutely not a demand issue, we do really want to operate this service. It really came down to the infrastructure and the equipment that’s needed,” said Lund.

Anyone with questions about cancelled flights should contact Flair’s Customer Support at 1-833-711-2333 or email refunds@flyflair.com.

Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter

Comments are closed.