A new plane, 50 new jobs and new routes are set to land at the Flair Airlines base at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.
“Kitchener-Waterloo is an incredibly important part of the Flair network and we’re excited to expand our base here,” said Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Flair Airlines.
Flair started flying out of Waterloo Region in last spring with two planes and currently flies to Calgary, Cancun, Edmonton, Fort Lauderdale, Halifax, Kelowna, Orlando-Sanford, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
The new third plane will allow the airline to service flights from Kitchener-Waterloo to Deer Lake, Charlottetown and Saint John starting in June.
Airline officials said the new aircraft will bring approximately 50 jobs to the region,including customer service agents, ground handlers, cabin crews, and maintenance staff.
An airline industry expert said the expansion signals a busy summer at the local airport.
"It will be a great time for travel," said John Gradek, a faculty lecturer at McGill Aviation Management Program. "We won't see a significant inflation in fares. The fares offered by ultra-low cost carriers will benefit to consumers."
Gradek noted the fares will likely remain low over the summer as competition over budget-minded travellers heats up with Lynx Airlines, a new Canadian ultra-low cost carrier, set to start flying in a few months. Lynx does not have Kitchener-Waterloo as a destination on its website.
However, Gradek said there could be some turbulence in the long term for the ultra-low cost airlines.
"My only concern is will these carriers survive? We've been through this cycle before. Lots of pomp and circumstance launching these carriers, but within months we've seen retrenchment. For most carriers, these fares are not economically sustainable," added Gradek.
