Photo: Contributed
TORONTO — Flair Airlines is planning to leave Hamilton this fall for Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, just months after new ultra-low-cost rival Swoop landed at the smaller airport.
The airline based in Kelowna, B.C., said Friday that its Hamilton service will end on Oct. 27.
“After extensive analysis we made the determination that due to market size and competition we felt that we could have a greater impact in Toronto,” spokeswoman Julie Rempel said in an interview.
Even though Pearson costs are higher, Flair’s yields and passenger load factors were higher for its flights to Edmonton and consistently outperformed flights from Hamilton, she said.
Routes to Winnipeg and Edmonton will be transferred to Toronto while seasonal flights between Halifax and Toronto are slated to start next spring.
Flair will next week announce its first service to the United States with flights to six destinations starting in December. It is also finalizing a change in aircraft type.
The airline had the John C. Munro airport in Hamilton to itself as an ultra low-cost carrier until WestJet’s Swoop subsidiary set up its eastern Canadian base of operations in June.
Asked if there is room for two ultra low-cost competitors in Hamilton, Rempel said Flair isn’t sticking around to find out.
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