Flair Suspending Growth Plans amid Delivery Delays and Debt

[cdnavater]

I found this,

In particular, a Canadian applicant for a scheduled international licence must establish that it:

has been designated by the Minister of Transport as eligible to hold a scheduled international licence;
meets the prescribed financial requirements;
has the prescribed liability insurance coverage in respect of the service to be provided under the licence; and
holds a Canadian aviation document (CAD) issued by Transport Canada, which includes the service to be provided under the licence.

[JustaCanadian]

If two airlines fail this year in Canada is this a sign of Trudeau's carbon tax working?

[Flairpilot]

I’m 99% sure we don’t use Sabre or Radixx, ours is processed through Amelia.

Your numbers, below, illustrate in perfect clarity why pilots should fly, and leave the bookkeeping tasks, to bookkeepers. I won’t say everything is fine but I will say you should shut your yap when spouting off on topics you cannot be familiar with.

Bon Dimanche!

My error. It looked like Flair's site was up as of 7:30 am Sunday morning.

https://www.sabre.com/radixx/

Whatever is going on, this issue is isolated to Flair.

My observation was based on flight options being generated by the system, which is more than was possible in the previous 24 hours.

I have no idea, and no interest in actually attempting to make a booking to see if they could collect the cash.

If Flair are still unable to complete bookings and take payment, they are in very deep doo doo.

Flair need to be taking in an average of about $2,083 every minute of every day to pay for current operations.

Being out of the game for 24+ hours is a massive hole to try to dig yourself out of, on top of all the other craters they've got to deal with.

[Canadaflyer46]

I’m 99% sure we don’t use Sabre or Radixx, ours is processed through Amelia.

Your numbers, below, illustrate in perfect clarity why pilots should fly, and leave the bookkeeping tasks, to bookkeepers. I won’t say everything is fine but I will say you should shut your yap when spouting off on topics you cannot be familiar with.

Bon Dimanche!

My error. It looked like Flair's site was up as of 7:30 am Sunday morning.

https://www.sabre.com/radixx/

Whatever is going on, this issue is isolated to Flair.

My observation was based on flight options being generated by the system, which is more than was possible in the previous 24 hours.

I have no idea, and no interest in actually attempting to make a booking to see if they could collect the cash.

If Flair are still unable to complete bookings and take payment, they are in very deep doo doo.

Flair need to be taking in an average of about $2,083 every minute of every day to pay for current operations.

Being out of the game for 24+ hours is a massive hole to try to dig yourself out of, on top of all the other craters they've got to deal with.

I'd say Realitychex knows what he's talking about. Let's see how well your post ages in the coming days/weeks.

[fish4life]

I’m 99% sure we don’t use Sabre or Radixx, ours is processed through Amelia.

Your numbers, below, illustrate in perfect clarity why pilots should fly, and leave the bookkeeping tasks, to bookkeepers. I won’t say everything is fine but I will say you should shut your yap when spouting off on topics you cannot be familiar with.

Bon Dimanche!

My error. It looked like Flair's site was up as of 7:30 am Sunday morning.

https://www.sabre.com/radixx/

Whatever is going on, this issue is isolated to Flair.

My observation was based on flight options being generated by the system, which is more than was possible in the previous 24 hours.

I have no idea, and no interest in actually attempting to make a booking to see if they could collect the cash.

If Flair are still unable to complete bookings and take payment, they are in very deep doo doo.

Flair need to be taking in an average of about $2,083 every minute of every day to pay for current operations.

Being out of the game for 24+ hours is a massive hole to try to dig yourself out of, on top of all the other craters they've got to deal with.

You don’t have to like realitychex but if you knew who he was you’d understand he’d be in the top 25 people in Canada that know what they are talking about.

[ChrisB]

Globe and Mail:
"

Flair Airlines’ flight-booking functions on its website were down over the weekend, preventing would-be travellers from buying seats.

Flair said in an e-mail on Sunday night it worked overnight Saturday on a solution, and hoped the website would be working again “within the next few hours.” Flair did not address questions about the cause.

The site remained down into Sunday evening.

The problem, which apparently took hold on Saturday, appeared to affect the seat purchase function on the website. Destinations and prices were displayed as usual, but the booking and payment functions failed.

“We are currently experiencing a service interruption,” a message read. “Please check back soon.”

Flair’s travails have made news recently.

In January, The Globe and Mail reported the airline owes $67-million in tax repayment for imported aircraft. Flair said it has a repayment agreement with the federal government and is following the schedule.

Financial services company Peoples Trust, meanwhile, recently withheld $25-million from Flair, the airline said. Peoples, a payment processor, declined to address questions about the money. Speaking generally, Peoples said in a statement it boosts the size of a payment reserve fund according to the risks posed by a merchant.

“Should a flight be cancelled and not rebooked by an airline and the airline cannot refund the money, cardholders are entitled to request a refund, or chargeback, from their card-issuing bank,” Peoples said the statement.

“When a chargeback is received, the airline’s payment acquirer [Peoples or another processor] must refund the purchase from a reserve account,” Peoples said.

Flair said Peoples acted improperly and promised unspecified legal action.

Flair is Canada’s lone discount airline after the failure of Lynx Air in February. Lynx was granted court protection from creditors, and its leased fleet will be auctioned off. Flair’s fleet was reduced by four last year, when the Boeing 737 Max aircraft were seized for non-payment of rent.

The Globe reported on Friday that Flair reduced its spring schedule by about 600 flights. Flair spokeswoman Gabrielle Poirier said the reductions were made months before Lynx shut down, and are unrelated to its financial position.

“We acknowledge we have faced financial challenges, but these are not impacting operations, now or in the future,” she said in an e-mail on Friday. “We are actively managing our finances and fulfilling our obligations, guided by principles of compliance, stability and transparency.”

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351 King Street East, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON Canada, M5A 0N1
Andrew Saunders, President and CEO

Flair Airlines’ website malfunctions on weekend, in another blow to the discount carrier

[Realitychex]

It could indeed be Amelia, a system designed and used by various very small operators.

https://intelisysaviation.com/our-airline-partners/

Most serious airlines stick with Navitaire or Radixx.

Regardless, the system is down and has apparently been down for almost 40 hours.

Having your revenue portal down for an hour is a big deal. Being down 4 hours and the CIO will be dusting off his or her resume.

40 hours is unheard of in my near 30 years in the industry.

By day's end, Flair will have incurred $5.91m in operating costs since the system has been down, with no revenue to offset said costs, with said costs increasing by $34.23 a second.

The Flair doomsday clock is ticking ever closer to midnight.

[boeingboy]

Time for a reminder of Stephan Jones own words...


“At some point there will be some form of reckoning, whether it’s a restructure or whatever.”

[DanWEC]

I’m 99% sure we don’t use Sabre or Radixx, ours is processed through Amelia.

Your numbers, below, illustrate in perfect clarity why pilots should fly, and leave the bookkeeping tasks, to bookkeepers. I won’t say everything is fine but I will say you should shut your yap when spouting off on topics you cannot be familiar with.

Bon Dimanche!

My error. It looked like Flair's site was up as of 7:30 am Sunday morning.

https://www.sabre.com/radixx/

Whatever is going on, this issue is isolated to Flair.

My observation was based on flight options being generated by the system, which is more than was possible in the previous 24 hours.

I have no idea, and no interest in actually attempting to make a booking to see if they could collect the cash.

If Flair are still unable to complete bookings and take payment, they are in very deep doo doo.

Flair need to be taking in an average of about $2,083 every minute of every day to pay for current operations.

Being out of the game for 24+ hours is a massive hole to try to dig yourself out of, on top of all the other craters they've got to deal with.

While I have no pretensions to debate here, I have to say it's pretty commendable to not only double down on insulting industry experts with some badly timed smuggery, but also covering your ears and screaming as well. Whew.

This is not an IT malfunction. It's not a ransom attack. It's a vendor withholding service because of lack of funds and nothing but. It's still ongoing. Try to book a flight.

I deeply hope for some resolution where everyone walks away unscathed but to entirely deny any major, critical and immediate issues are pressing is being oblivious.

[mmm...bacon]

20:20 PDT right now, and when I enter a random city pair and dates, as soon as I hit search it apologises for the technical problems.

Fearing the worst, but hoping for the best for my friends at Flair..

[accountant]

Maybe 777 took some cash to put on the soccer team…

[cdnavater]

Still getting the service interruption page as of 0930 Eastern, but even more strange when I selected search flights a pop up was required and when I went back to the main page it was trivago not Flair.
Is Flair affiliated with Trivago?

[porcsord]

Still down, no real official word from Flair. Rumor on the internets: Internal Memo issued by CEO: Everything is fine, techincal glitch, continue working as per normal.

Cue the "this is fine" dog in a burning house meme.

[lostaviator]

SJ won’t even be able to get a job as a used car salesman after this whole debacle. “There’s nothing wrong with this beauty” said as the rear bumper held on by duct tape falls off after a gentle tap.

[Flairpilot]

SJ won’t even be able to get a job as a used car salesman after this whole debacle. “There’s nothing wrong with this beauty” said as the rear bumper held on by duct tape falls off after a gentle tap.

Wish there was a like button on this site…..

[modi13]

Internal Memo issued by CEO: Everything is fine, techincal glitch, continue working as per normal.

Cue the "this is fine" dog in a burning house meme.

An employee should ask him why bookings can't be made on third-party sites like Expedia either if it's just a problem with Flair's website. It isn't possible to book anywhere, which indicates there's something amiss with their ability to accept payment, not an IT problem with their site. Ironically, when it redirects to that page with Trivago and stuff on it, it's not possible to book a Flair ticket on any of those platforms.

[330heavy]

Apparently they can't even get money for ancillary/BOB. Gate bags free, FA unable to charge for by on board. Hard for an ULCC to miss out on that income.

[bueno]

They deleted a bunch of comments on their last instagram post of people talking about the inability to book flights and asking when the site would be functional again

[Aviationanalysis234]

Can any Flair team members advise when their next payroll is. This Thursday or next Monday?

[evilgravy]

All signs are pointing to an issue with the payment gateway, rather than a simple website glitch. I’d wager there is definitely a scramble happening at HQ.

[julcancro]

They got a work around now. They are wetleasing themselves to 777 partners company World Ticket Ltd. and having Expedia collect payment.

[JakeLRS]

- Flair bookings can be made via 3rd party websites (Expedia/CheapoAir) under WorldTicket (Operated by Flair Airlines Ltd.)
- Awfully similar to NewLeaf and we all know how that went
- Flair continues to not be able to get ancillary revenue, which is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (BOB, Check-In Fees, Etc...)

Flair Payday is Thursday if I recall, lets see if there is a "glitch" because of the holiday.

I'm rooting for Flair and its 1250+ employees, but this cat with 22 lives will have some serious injuries after this fall. 777 seems to be having it on life support by having WorldTicket (a 777 company) operate as a newleaf model for flair. It's just a matter of when they'll pull the plug

[DanWEC]

So their workaround is booking through a classy third party aggregate site, cheapo air- owned by 777. I assume it's temporary.

I checked a few flights, and many didn't translate to Cheapo. The one flight that did was $199 on flyflair but $305 on Cheapo, hope it's just WIP.

I've flown Flair several times before because of a specific Southern city pair. (Not because of price but rather of convenience.) However there is zero chance I'll be booking anything until/if this all blows over, but I'm sadly pessimistic of that.

[ACYYC]

Cheapo Air is owned by Fareportal, not 777partners.

When I tried to search flights on Flair's site it redirected me to Expedia. I had to reenter the city pair and dates and search. The first page of results were all Westjet and Air Canada flights. I had to scroll way down to find a flight that showed "WorldTicket- operated by Flair". It was more expensive than AC or WS.

WorldTicket just happens to be owned by 777partners.

I'd be very surprised if many potential Flair customers would go through all that just to get a Flair ticket, so I don't think this is really going to save them.

[Old fella]

Cheapo Air is owned by Fareportal, not 777partners.

When I tried to search flights on Flair's site it redirected me to Expedia. I had to reenter the city pair and dates and search. The first page of results were all Westjet and Air Canada flights. I had to scroll way down to find a flight that showed "WorldTicket- operated by Flair". It was more expensive than AC or WS.

WorldTicket just happens to be owned by 777partners.

I'd be very surprised if many potential Flair customers would go through all that just to get a Flair ticket, so I don't think this is really going to save them.

The grouping I am associated with and represent(older demographic) has gotten the message. Avoid Flair until/if this ongoing meltdown subsides.