George Nugent Travels

Flair are a low cost airline based in Edmonton, Alberta. The airline began life as a charter airline before transitioning to a scheduled airline in 2017. The airlines slogan is “Plane and Simple” ironic really as their IT systems are anything but simple.

I was using Flair to fly from Toronto to Calgary, a route with 182 flights per week on 6 airlines (Air Canada, Air Transat, Flair Airlines, Lynx Air, Porter Airlines and Westjet). I selected Flair as at the time they were the cheapest and I knew I would be flying with Air Canada and Lynx Air at a later time.

Despite their reputation I decided to give Flair a chance and fly with them, but do they really deserve their reputation as the worst airline in Canada?

Flight Details

Airline – Flair Airlines (F8)

Origin – Toronto Pearson T3

Destination – Calgary

Flight Number – F8 621

Date of Travel – 9th June 2023

Price – $303 CAD

With the flight details out of the way, lets begin the afternoon before my flight.

The Day Before – June 8th 2023

I had been staying in Toronto for two nights before travelling to Calgary. The afternoon before departure I received an email from Flair inviting me to check in for my flight. Online check in is highly recommended as there is a charge of $25 CAD (~ £14.80) if you fail to do so and check in at the airport.

I attempted to check in using the Flair App, which is possibly the second worst airline app ever developed, only British Airways are worse. The app fails to remember your booking meaning you need to enter your booking details every time you open the app, even if you are logged in.

Despite this I entered my details only to be greeted by the message shown below.

I tried multiple times and tried using my middle name and without using it, none of my attempts worked. I sent a message to my Dad who travels consistently and was in another country to see if he could make it work, he text back shortly after saying he couldn’t either.

I sent Flair a message on Twitter and they replied saying I had an active booking and that they would put a note in the booking to inform the airport staff not to charge me at the airport. This I thought was the end of it.

I was finally able to access my booking and was surprised to realise that my booking now had two flights showing as active rather than one.

Seeing as it was getting late and I still wanted to explore Toronto I left the issue and decided I would go to the airport early and check in.

Travel Day – 9th June 2023

My flight was departing at 1235 and Flair check in desks were open 3 hours before departure for people like me who needed to check in.

I made my way to their desks only to met by possibly the most redundant queue management system I have ever seen. Flair decided to have three channels for customers that all lead to the same place and were not sign posted, maybe this is my European airport experiences talking but what is wrong with a simple system separating bag drop customers and check in customers?

I was quickly at a check in desk and gave the employee my passport. I showed her the screenshot I included above and she was as confused as me. Despite this she had me checked in and my bag processed in under a minute.

Security in this instance took less than five minutes to complete and I was soon walking to gate B5 for my flight.

The B gates in Toronto are located in a separate building which is only accessible by foot via the longest tunnel I have ever seen in an airport. These gates are used for domestic flights and the area has some shops and coffee chains in the waiting area.

My aircraft soon arrived on stand having worked a flight from Thunder Bay. Flair are a low cost airline and as a result they have shorter turnaround times on their flights than Air Canada or Westjet.

This flight was operated by a Boeing 737 Max 8 (registration C-FLKC) that was built in November 2019. Due to the Max groundings from March 2019 until January 2021 this aircraft was not delivered until June 30th 2021. All Flair 737 Max aircraft can hold 189 passengers in an all economy configuration.

The Onboard Experience

The interior surprised me given that Flairs branding is green and black, therefore I was surprised to find blue seats that didn’t appear to be what Flair would have ordered. This seemed to have been confirmed on my next Flair flight which had silver seating and a much newer cabin feeling.

Despite this aircraft only being in commercial service for 23 months at the time of travelling the cabin felt significantly older. It had what you would expect from a low cost airline, which isn’t much, but it still felt like it was missing something.

I soon found my seat (24F) and tried to get comfortable. These seats had enough leg room but became rather uncomfortable on a flight of this length.

The cabin crew took us through the safety demonstration which is done in both English and French. We pushed back from the gate and were airborne at 1255.

Flair claims to offer inflight Wi-Fi however this did not appear to be working, further research seems to show that this particular aircraft did not have it equipped. As a result Flair’s inflight entertainment which is accessed via your phone was not available.

As Flair are a low cost airline drinks and snacks can be purchased onboard throughout the flight. I had a look through the menu before departure, there is a good selection and this appeared to be reasonably priced.

The crew on this flight passed through the cabin multiple times to both offer refreshments as well as collecting rubbish from passengers.

The crew remained professional and responsible throughout the flight and were happy to answer any questions that passengers had about their connections in Calgary.

Calgary Arrivals Experience

We arrived into Calgary at 1432 which was 18 minutes ahead of schedule and we were at our gate within five minutes.

The ground crew worked quickly to get us off the aircraft and as we were disembarking the cabin crew announced what baggage belt our luggage would be available from.

I made my way into arrivals, which is actually the public area of the airport and my bag was available for collection at 1457.

I made my way outside and was on a bus into downtown Calgary, overall a very smooth and efficient arrivals process.

The Big Question, Were Flair That Bad?

If I’m honest, Flair were average at best, even for a low cost airline.

The IT system makes the entire process more stressful than it needs to be and their app is seriously clunky when compared to its European rivals such as Ryanair or easyJet.

Where Flair did redeem themselves was with their check in staff, they were excellent and made sure that my booking was correct and they had me checked in very quickly.

I feel if Flair updated their IT and aircraft cabins then they would improve significantly, but until that happens I would probably fly someone else.

As a fan of the Star Alliance group of airlines I would personally move towards Air Canada, however, WestJet have a significant presence on this route and likely have a flight at a time to suit you.