Airline HQ jobs flying the coop
Special to the Herald
Kelowna airport officials are disappointed but understand Flair Airline’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Kelowna to Edmonton.
“It’s a loss for Kelowna, no question,” said Kelowna International Airport senior manager of operations Phillip Elchitz.
“But, it’s a natural business move for an airline to be located at its hub. Flair has 200 flights weekly and 65 per cent of them are in and out of Edmonton airport. Kelowna airport has seven flights weekly.”
On Tuesday, Flair announced it will move its corporate offices and operations centre to Edmonton gradually over the next few months.
“We all love Kelowna,” said Flair executive chairman David Tait.
“But Kelowna doesn’t have the scalability Flair needs now. When Flair started as a small charter carrier in Kelowna, it had a few planes and a few destinations (mostly to the oilpatch and sun spots from various Canadian cities). Now that we’re a scheduled carrier with seven planes, and soon 20 planes, Kelowna just can’t support our growth anymore.”
Tait noted the Kelowna area has a population 200,000, whereas Edmonton has 1.2 million people.
He also pointed out the labour force for hiring is naturally much bigger in Edmonton, and that Edmonton’s large airport is more conducive to being a destination in itself and a main transfer hub.
The blow to Kelowna is losing the prestige of having a corporate head office and and 50 jobs that go with it.
It also means Kelowna will miss out on the future growth of Flair as it hires more administration staff, flight attendants and pilots in Edmonton as opposed to Kelowna.
That hiring is expected to be hundreds as Flair ramps up from seven planes to 20 and adds frequency and new routes, including flights to sun spots in the U.S.
Kelowna will continue to be served by Flair with a couple of non-stop flights a week to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
A couple of flight crews of pilots and flight attendants will also likely continue to be based in Kelowna.
Some Flair planes will also likely continue to be maintained here at KF Aerospace (formerly Kelowna Flightcraft).
In fact, Tait said Kelowna is a strong market and could get more frequency on the Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton routes, may get service to other Canadian cities and will likely get flights to sun destinations in the U.S. this winter.
“We have an excellent relationship with Flair,” said Elchitz.
“We’re fortunate to have them serve Kelowna. I’m sure the community will continue to support the ultra-low-cost carrier model.”
Flair has long claimed it’s not really in competition with traditional airlines Air Canada and WestJet.
Flair’s ultra-low-cost operations attract people who previously drove or didn’t fly or travel because airfares are too costly.
Ultra-low-cost makes flying affordable for many, but the trade-offs are bare-bones service, less frequency and paying for extras such as checked and carry-on bags and seat selection.
Having Edmonton as a hub means Flair flies in and out of its international airport from eight cities — Kelowna, Abbotsford, Victoria, Vancouver, Prince George, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Toronto.
Edmonton is also the prime connection point for Flair passengers.
Flair also serves Halifax, Hamilton and Calgary.
Flair’s announcement came a day before Calgary-based WestJet launched its ultralow-cost airline, Swoop, with two planes and a flight from Hamilton to Abbotsford.
“We’re thrilled to have Swoop as competition,” said Tait.
“Canada desperately needs more ultralow-cost flights. It will all result in more city pairs and frequency.”