Flair Vacations Puts Travel Trade at Heart of New Tour Operation

Flair Airlines is preparing to launch Flair Vacations within days, promising a tour operator built around travel advisor partnerships, competitive value and a broader effort to build trust in the Flair brand. 

At an industry event high above Toronto’s financial district, Flair Airlines President and CEO Len Corrado and Flair Vacations President Nicole Bursey offered travel advisors, agency executives and trade media a first look at the strategy behind the new operation. 

For Corrado, who has been at the helm of Flair for about eight months, the launch is part of a larger transformation of the 21-year-old airline. 

Flair built its business around an ultra-low-cost, consumer-direct model, he said, but in doing so largely overlooked an important distribution channel: travel professionals. 

With a long aviation career and seven years at Sunwing Airlines, including three as president, Corrado knows that channel well, and respects its power.

“We neglected what I’m used to, which is that expert travel partner, those travel counsellors who actually know the customers we’re most after intimately and deeply,” Corrado said. 

Changing that has been a priority since his arrival. 

Flair has expanded its distribution capabilities and recently launched air-only sales to the travel industry, commissionable for a limited time at 7%. Flair Vacations represents the next step. 

Five Gateways, Five Sun Destinations

Flair Vacations will initially build around Flair Airlines’ existing sun network, packaging direct flights with hotels, transfers, checked and carry-on baggage and in-destination support. 

For its first winter program, packages will be offered from five Canadian gateways — Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver — to five destinations: Cancun and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico; Punta Cana and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic; and Montego Bay, Jamaica. 

Bursey said the company has handpicked its initial hotel partners, with properties ranging from three- to five-star resorts. 

While she held back most hotel details ahead of the formal launch, Bursey revealed that the tour operator’s test property is Marival Resorts in Puerto Vallarta, which she described as “a reliable five-star product.” 

The new operator is also already talking with tourism partners about future destinations, including markets looking for a Canadian partner willing to take a chance on something new. 

‘We Have to Earn Your Trust’

Both Corrado and Bursey repeatedly returned to one word during their presentations: trust. 

Corrado acknowledged that Flair has work to do in changing perceptions of the airline, but said the carrier has made significant strides in operational performance, customer service and reliability in the past few years. 

“We know we’ve got work to do,” he told the audience. “We’re not unaware of that, and we work to do that every single day.” 

The  goal, he said, is to become “Canada’s trusted value airline,” with value defined not simply by having the lowest fare. 

“Value to us is that we do what we promise we’re going to do,” Corrado said. “When we can’t do it, let’s be honest and transparent and open.” 

He described the changes underway as a significant pivot for Flair, with greater emphasis on safety, reliability, simplicity, transparency and customer service. 

“We look forward to earning your trust,” he said. “We know we’ve got work to do. Join us for the ride.” 

Advisor are Central to Strategy

Bursey made it clear that travel advisors will be central to Flair Vacations from the beginning. 

The company conducted focus groups with advisors and agency owners while developing the operation and has built a team with extensive travel industry experience. 

“We want to be responsive to what the trade needs,” Bursey said. 

That team includes Lindsay Watkinson, Director of Commercial Operations; Concetta De Pisa, Senior Director of Product and Yield Pricing; Nadia Granata, Director of Marketing; and Rares Dumitru, Director of Business Development and Partnerships. 

Flair Vacations has added Abbey Brissett as business development manager for Ontario and plans to add BDMs for Quebec and Western Canada. Saijjal Suri is on the team as Agency Support Coordinator. 

Bursey said hotel partners have been enthusiastic about the tour operator’s commitment to retail distribution. 

“Every single one of them, one of their very first questions was, ‘Will you be working through travel partners?’” she said. 

Her answer was unequivocal. “Absolutely. We would not be doing this without support from the retailers.” 

Value, Not Just Cheap Travel

Despite Flair’s low-cost roots, Bursey stressed that Flair Vacations does not intend to position itself simply as a bargain operator. 

“Our value proposition is not that we’re offering cheap travel,” she said. 

Instead, she said Flair Vacations intends to deliver fair pricing for consumers along with a fair proposition for agency owners and individual travel sellers. 

“This market is ready for a new competitor,” she said, “a partner that’s built on trust, a partner that is willing to listen to you and collaborate with you.” 

With the formal launch nowjust days away, Bursey said the team is now looking forward to a significant milestone. 

“We really look forward to that first sale,” she said, “and the many thousands of sales after that.”