FLYING WITH FLAIR BY DARCY NYBO
I
n 2003 Jim Rogers, one of the founders of Kelowna Flightcraft, recognized a
market opportunity to develop a charter company that would provide customized air travel for commercial users. Soon thereafter, Kelowna-based Flair Airlines Ltd. was born. The company has been a huge success and works closely with Kelowna Flightcraft for their maintenance and aircraft dispatch services.
Chris Lapointe, General Manager of Flair Air is excited about the way the company has grown.
“We started out doing charters in North America, expanded to the Caribbean and South America and recently did a round the world tour. The great thing about Flair Air is that we have the ability to configure the aircraft to clients’ requirements. For example we can turn the interior from a 158-seat economy class set-up to a 72-seat business class configuration with lots of legroom. We are really a niche market operator; a charter airline that flies on contract only. We don’t sell to the general public and most of our customers include corporations and government agencies like the Canadian military.”
Flair Air’s three matching Boeing 737- 400s are logging plenty of flight time. The company is currently exploring the possibility of wide body operations. “We’ve moved 10,000 people a month
out of large oil sands projects in Northern Alberta,” says Lapointe. “We move quite a few firefighters around at this time of year as well. We can usually launch in two to three hours when it comes to emergency situations. We are very good at moving people in and out of remote sites.”
There’s also a fun side to Flair Air: they recently had a corporate client fly people from Toronto down to Cabo San Lucas for the weekend and negotiated with a Canadian TV production company to do a week long shoot in one of their planes. Aside from government and corporate flights, Flair Air also does private charters and contracts out to other airlines.
Their pilots are every bit as diverse as the company itself. “We have a very experienced group of pilots,” says Lapointe. “Half of our pilots are senior captains from other large airlines, while the other half are a young group of very sharp first officers. They work very well together. All our pilots have thousands
and thousands of hours of flight time experience. They are a group of real pros who just love the business; they are here because they love to fly. Right now we have crews based in Kelowna, Calgary and in Hamilton.”
Flair Air planes all have the newer fuel efficient engines, which means your dollar literally goes farther. As for cost; well it’s less expensive than you think. Depending on where you are going and what and who is onboard, Flair Air can actually save you money while they match themselves up to your specific needs.
Whether you’re a musical group on tour, a school, or a private group and you need to go around the world, the country or the province, Flair Air will get you there.
For more information contact Flair Airlines Ltd. at (250) 491-5513 or visit them online at
www.flairair.ca.
SUMMER 2011 | 11
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