Flair Airlines adding new Winnipeg flights to Kelowna, Victoria and London, Ont.
Low-cost carrier also expanding number of flights to Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary
A low-fare airline is expanding its flights to and from Winnipeg this summer, including three new routes that will take off from the Prairie city starting in June.
Twice-weekly Flair Airlines flights between Winnipeg and the B.C. cities of Victoria and Kelowna, as well as London, Ont., will begin in June as part of the provider's summer schedule.
Victoria flights will start on June 9, followed by Kelowna on June 10 and London on June 11.
The update will connect Winnipeg "to three destinations that are either underserved or have been unserved for a very long time," Eric Tanner, Flair's vice-president of network planning and revenue management, said at a Wednesday morning news conference at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport.
The airline will also begin offering flights between Winnipeg and Toronto up to three times a day, and will have daily flights between the Manitoba capital and both Vancouver and Calgary, Tanner said.
That expanded service comes with the addition of six weekly flights to Toronto Pearson International Airport, four weekly flights to Vancouver International Airport and five weekly flights to Calgary International Airport, Flair said in a news release later Wednesday.
One-way flights to Kelowna or Victoria will start at $49 and London flights at $69, including taxes and fees, the release said.
"Winnipeg has a population base that's really resonated with our low fares," Tanner said.
Nick Hays, president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Airports Authority, said the update from Canada's third-largest domestic airline means more low-cost choices to get Manitobans to and from popular destinations across the country.
"Whether it's people heading out to see family, friends or loved ones, or people getting out there and visiting their favourite places, or exploring new places that they've never been before — the excitement I feel is really palpable," Hays said at the news conference.
"More flights means more options and more convenience when it comes to travel. They also bring more tourism dollars and more valuable jobs to help strengthen the economy."
In total, Flair will service the Winnipeg airport 51 times a week for the summer of 2023, up 75 per cent from the airline's current winter schedule, the news release said.
Winnipeg air travel up
The additional flights come as passenger traffic levels at Manitoba's largest airport continue to rise after dropping in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just over three million people flew in and out of Richardson in 2022, the airports authority said last week. That's 2½ times the previous year's number, when 1.2 million passengers travelled through the Winnipeg airport.
That recovery was helped in part by the return of winter holiday travel and direct flights to warm-weather destinations last year, the airports authority said.
The addition of a new WestJet direct connection between Winnipeg and Los Angeles last October also contributed to the improvement in passenger numbers, it said, but the airports authority has not disclosed passenger volumes on that new flight.
The update also comes as Flair works to expand its own services. The airline currently has 19 planes and is working to get to 50 by the end of 2025, Tanner said.