Barnstorming Flair Airlines CEO seeks to build customer trust

The new head of Canada’s most prominent budget airline has a message for Manitoba travellers who have had a tough time on one of its flights over the last few “challenging” years: give Flair another chance.

“I believe that we deserve another try,” Flair Airlines CEO Maciej Wilk told the Free Press while meeting Winnipeggers at a local café on Friday.

“Even from the customers that might have flown us two years ago and then had some issues. We are a different airline right now.”

Wilk, who was named as Flair’s CEO in July, is on what he describes as a cross-country “road show,” hoping to meet people face-to-face and pitch a new Flair Airlines he said has “improved its operation significantly.”

“We’re really trying to build this customer trust,” he said. “Of course, it’s been a challenging couple of years for Flair, because this market is really challenging.”

Flair, which launched as ultra-low-cost carrier NewLeaf out of Winnipeg in 2016, is moving away from its bargain brand and shifting its focus to business travellers, but without business class-style accommodations, Wilk said. Instead, its version of business class will come with new priority status at gates and check-ins and looser regulations for bag sizes.

The shift in branding will target smaller businesses in need of affordable, no-frills domestic flights. Flair is also looking to partner with a global distribution system, which travel agents use to book flights.

“Maybe we won’t be providing silverware onboard our aircraft and the free Wi-Fi and whatnot, but basically, we will get you from point A to point B on time or even better,” Wilk said.

The airline is also on the search for additional aircraft, he said, and is hoping to increase its fleet by 20 per cent.

For Winnipeg, he said, this will ideally look like an increase in the number of flights already offered by Flair to Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary this year, and creating new connecting flights through Winnipeg.

For Wilk, it’s also about breaking a monopoly on some cities held by bigger airlines.

“There’s a route from Winnipeg to Montreal, for example, served only by Air Canada. In any geography, the monopoly is the worst thing possible from the customer’s perspective,” he said. “I would love to break that monopoly.”

The grounded goals for Flair come after a self-admitted difficult few years.

According to the Canadian Transportation Agency, Flair had the highest number of complaints per 100 flights out of any Canadian airline from July 2024 to June 2025 (the most recent data available). It had an average of just over 14 complaints per 100 flights in that time period; WestJet had just over 12 and Air Canada had just under five.

“We haven’t been great in customer service, especially in the case of any disruption,” Wilk said.

In the time since that data was published, Wilk said Flair has adopted AI technology to improve wait times. His goal for the next year was to “avoid the disruptions altogether.”

Meanwhile, the carrier’s Canada-U.S. flight volumes have dropped about 10 per cent in the past year as the relationship between the bordering countries has soured.

Flair is not alone. Data from aviation firm Cirium found flights from Canada to the U.S. dropped 14 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025 among the country’s top five carriers: Air Canada, WestJet, Porter Airlines, Air Transat and Flair.

Some of the biggest drops in flights were to Florida, Nevada and Las Vegas.

“The airlines were hoping that this was just going to be a flash in the pan … that it would eventually settle back into a return to sun destinations by the time the fourth quarter rolled along,” said John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University in Montreal.

Domestic flights and flights to Europe and Asia increased in 2025.

Wilk said Flair is looking to expand its number of seats in flights into the Maritimes by 50 per cent this year.

“People want to travel domestically, want to see other provinces, want to enjoy the Maritimes instead of enjoying Florida or Palm Springs … (the Maritimes) is the place to be this year,” he said.

While Flair offers direct flights to Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, none are currently offered direct from Winnipeg. That could change in the future, Wilk said.

“Eventually, I’m sure that we’ll be able to reintroduce a whole bunch of southbound flights, especially in winter,” he said, before gesturing to the nearest window and the snow-covered city outside. “I can clearly see that it is much needed.”

— with files from The Canadian Press

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca