Ultra low-cost carrier Flair is Canada’s worst airline for complaints, with more than 20 per cent of its flights generating some sort of complaint to the Canadian Transport Agency (CTA), new federal data shows.
While gripes about air travel are not unusual, the CTA, the quasi-judicial body that regulates air transportation, found Flair had the dubious distinction of trailing all other major carriers on customer satisfaction in the first quarter of 2023.
In the January-March period, the CTA received 20.9 complaints for every 100 Flair flights. That compares to 10.7 for WestJet and 5.8 for Air Canada.
Other low-cost carriers — which generally charge less for fares, only to add on ancillary fees for things like seat selection, baggage and live-agent customer service — performed better than Flair despite a similar business model.
Lynx, a fledgling Calgary-based carrier, had 5.2 complaints per 100 flights.
Sunwing, a leisure airline that was recently acquired by WestJet, was the second-worst carrier for complaints after Flair — it generated 17.4 complaints for every 100 flights, said the CTA. Swoop, WestJet’s discount sister brand, was the subject of 16 complaints per 100 flights.
Number of complaints per 100 flights operated by Canadian airlinesTable with the number of complains per 100 flights by Canadian airlines
MISSING: summary MISSING: current-rows.
Airline Year to date average (April 2022 – March 2023) Jan. 1 – March 31, 2023 Oct. 1 – Dec. 31, 2022
Flair Airlines Ltd. 15.3
15.315.3
20.9
20.920.9
12.8
12.812.8
Sunwing Airlines Inc. 13.8
13.813.8
17.4
17.417.4
20.7
20.720.7
Swoop Inc. 13.2
13.213.2
16.0
16.016.0
11.4
11.411.4
Westjet 6.6
6.66.6
10.7
10.710.7
5.6
5.65.6
Lynx Air 5.4
5.45.4
5.2
5.25.2
6.5
6.56.5
Air Canada 4.3
4.34.3
5.8
5.85.8
4.1
4.14.1
Air Transat A.T. Inc. 3.3
3.33.3
4.4
4.44.4
4.4
4.44.4
Flair’s poor showing doesn’t come as a surprise to some of its customers.
There’s a dedicated Facebook group — Flair Airlines Nightmares — that has over 10,000 members who trade horror stories about flying with the carrier.
The complaints are different but there’s one common thread: lacklustre or non-existent customer service.
Passengers are often grappling with last-minute flight cancellations, hours-long delays, lost bags and rebooked flights that are days or weeks out from the original date of departure.
Sometimes, Flair has put passengers on planes headed to airports that were not their original destinations.
What’s unique about Flair, passengers say, is its inadequate level of communication.
Third-party contract airport workers are powerless to help with some issues.
Call centre wait times are particularly egregious, passengers claim. Customer complaints are usually handled by email.
Passengers are often directed to an automated chatbot on the airline’s website, a tool disgruntled Flair travellers say is essentially useless.
What’s missing is adequate access to a real person who can actually help solve a problem, Flair customers say.
Ken Elmes was one of those unlucky travellers.
‘The whole thing is a mess’
In an interview with CBC News, Elmes recounted being stranded in Saint John, N.B. His flight from Toronto went off without a hitch — the return was a different story.
The flight home was cancelled at the last minute, he said. Elmes and his wife were automatically rebooked on a flight ten days later.
“We’re like, what? Ten days? I’d never even heard of that. That’s completely unacceptable,” Elmes said.
A trip to the airport didn’t solve their problem — an overworked reservation agent dealing with a group of irate passengers told Elmes she couldn’t change the reservation.
“I feel sorry for their workers — she told us this happens all the time,” he said. “This airline, it’s just not professional at all. The whole thing is a mess.”
After spending hours on hold with Flair’s call centre — and realizing that other airlines were sold out on the Saint John-Toronto route — Elmes rented a one-way car rental and drove across the country to get home rather than wait for Flair to come through.
That set him back a cool $1,500 — many times more than what he paid for the airfare.
Elmes, a retiree on a fixed income, said it was an unnecessary hit to the wallet that still stings seven weeks after he got back.
He said Flair initially offered some compensation — it agreed to $688.68 — only to later renege, claiming it didn’t owe him anything.
“They need to clean up their act. The transport minister, Omar Alghabra, he’s got to do something,” Elmes said. “One thing is for sure, I’ll absolutely never fly Flair again.”