News provided by Kelowna Daily Courier – link to full story – with a hint from P.N.
Steve MacNaull – Oct 24, 2019 Updated Oct 24, 2019
Special to The Daily Courier
Flair Airlines planes are still flying thanks to a B.C. Supreme Court interim injunction.
Kelowna-based KF Aerospace (formerly Kelowna Flightcraft) wanted to end its dispatch services contract with Flair on Oct. 9, a move that would have put Flair out of business.
Flair argued its survival was on the line in court. The court sided with Flair and ordered KF to continue to provide dispatch services to Flair for the time being.
Flair used to be based in Kelowna but now has its headquarters in Edmonton.
It has 300 employees and operates 110 flights per week between seven Canadian cities: Kelowna, Vancouver, Abbotsford, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto.
About 120,000 customers have purchased tickets for flights.
Dispatch services can include everything from computer-optimized flight planning to weather and wind data, air traffic control filing, aircraft situational data, aircraft performance and loading information, airspace restriction and airport conditions information, and advice to pilots.
KF has such expertise, and Flair contracted it from KF because Flair doesn’t have its own in-house dispatch services.
Dispatch services are integral to an airline’s operations and are required by Transport Canada for an airline to be in business.
Flair and KF have had business dealings since 2005.
Prior to offering ultra-low-cost scheduled flights in 2017, Flair was a charter airline that flew to sun spot destinations from Canadian cities and charters to the oilpatch.
In 2015, Flair and KF signed the dispatch services contract with no termination date.
However, there is a termination provision that states KF requires three months’ written warning of cancellation.
Trouble started on June 24 when KF sent a letter to Flair advising Flair it owed $204,750 under the contract and demanded payment in five business days.
Also, the letter served as notice that KF was cancelling the dispatch services contract as of three months from the date of the letter.
Flair claims it didn’t receive the letter until July 9.
Flair viewed the letter as a demand for payment, so the request was forwarded to the accounting department and the $204,750 was paid.
The letter and its dispatch services contract cancellation implications didn’t come to the attention of Flair senior executives until Aug. 13.
Flair sprung into action and applied for an interim injunction, and the application was heard Oct. 9 before Justice Paul Walker in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
The judge granted the interim injunction for the next three months because there was confusion about the cancellation letter and Flair would “suffer irreparable harm” if it didn’t get the injunction.
Flair is now searching for a new dispatch services provider.