A Flair Airlines Boeing 737 in Kamloops. (Photo via Kamloops Airport)

Flair Airlines is grounding its direct flight from Kamloops to Edmonton on September 6, less than three months after it began operations.

“Flair continuously reviews the performance of its routes,” a Flair Airlines spokesperson confirmed to Radio NL. “The demand between other cities exceeds that of Kamloops and Edmonton, unfortunately, despite our expectations and effort.”

The Edmonton-based ultra low-cost carrier began the twice-weekly flight on June 18,with flights running on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. It was initially scheduled to operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but those plans were changed prior to the inaugural flight.

“The door is always open for routes from Kamloops,” the Flair spokesperson added.

“September 6 is not that far away, and we want to fly the flights that passengers have purchased with us.”

Earlier this month, Kamloops Airport Managing Director, Ed Ratuski, told Radio NL that it had been a “fairly mediocre” first month of operations for the new Flair flights.

“The load factors right now in the 60 per cent range need to come up in order for that to be a sustainable route,” Ratuski said. “At those fares of $29 to $89 one-way, they really need to fill up that aircraft which is at about 110 passengers per flight. They still have a lot of empty seats.”

Flair is using Boeing 737s MAX 8s that seat 189 passengers on the Kamloops to Edmonton route. Those planes have more than twice capacity of the 78-seat Q400s used by WestJet and Air Canada to service Kamloops.

Flair’s business model also means the planes need to be filled to capacity as the airline makes much of its revenue on optional fees for things like baggage, seat selection, and priority boarding.

The airline’s Vice-President of Network Planning, Eric Tanner, said in May that presales for the Kamloops to Edmonton flight were “solid” and that the forecasted passenger counts were “good.”

“Kamloops really fits in our strategy of taking people to where they want to go without a connection. We’ve gone up to multiple flights a day in Edmonton [to] Kelowna, and I think Kamloops has a very similar profile,” Tanner said.

“It has unparalleled outdoors. It’s got the skiing, it’s got the golf, it’s got the water sports, it really kind of has it all.”

Edmonton was one of three key destinations being targeted for direct air service to Kamloops, with Victoria and Toronto the other two. Pacific Coastal Airlines is currently scheduled to begin seasonal service to Victoria in October.

The Flair flights were the first between Kamloops and Edmonton since WestJet’s month long attempt in 2021. Ratuski told RadioNL those flights did not perform as expected due to the lack of available flight crews as well as a lack of passengers due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and that summer’s wildfire season.

Back in 2019, Swoop – WestJet’s soon to be defunct ultra low-cost carrier – announced plans for a direct Kamloops to Edmonton flight which was to begin in April 2020.

That flight never took off because of COVID-19.