Flair Airlines puts brakes on Saskatoon-Calgary route
Canada’s discount airline is putting the brakes on its Saskatoon-Calgary route.
"The Calgary-Saskatoon flight route started on May 9, but due to market conditions, it has been put on pause for the time being," a spokesperson with Flair wrote in an email to CTV News.
In December, Air Canada announced it was ending its direct flights from Saskatoon to Calgary.
Just days after that decision, Flair Airlines stepped in and said it would fill the void starting in May.
But the route didn’t last long.
Flair said "if demand grows" it would "not hesitate" to bring back the flights.
The Saskatoon Airport Authority says it’s seeing airlines struggle with staffing and aircraft capacity.
"There is constrained capacity out there — so that means there's not as many aircraft as airlines would like," Stephen Maybury, president and CEO of the Saskatoon Airport Authority, told CTV News.
"There's pilot shortages as well, so it's just difficult right now to deploy to a certain market for an extended period of time."
The one-way, base-fare Flair flight was priced at $49.
While not as cheap, WestJet increased its flight frequencies between Saskatoon and Calgary from seven flights a day, to nine.
Maybury said the airport is continuing to market the route to airlines.
Jason Aebig, CEO of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, is pushing for Air Canada to bring back its direct Saskatoon-Calgary flights.
"It would be optimal to see more competition on these regional routes, because that would have an immediate impact on schedules, access fares and fees," Aebig said.
Without competition on regional flights, Aebig said the few carriers can have "free rein to dictate what the schedules and fares will be and it leaves the consumer in a in a weaker position."
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