The CEO of Flair Airlines is criticizing media coverage of the airline’s tax debts as “sensationalist” and claiming that his company’s bills have had no impact on operations.

This month, it was revealed that Flair owes $67.2 million in unpaid taxes and that the Canada Revenue Agency obtained an order for the seizure and sale of the carrier's property.

In a Wednesday interview, Flair CEO Stephen Jones dismissed the prospect of the CRA confiscating Flair aircraft, and repeatedly criticized the news media’s framing of the story.

“I don't think it does our customers and consumers in Canada any favours for you guys to be putting the more sensationalist angle on this,” Jones told BNN Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman.

“The real story is that Flair is here delivering affordable airfares to Canadians and commentators will say what commentators will say, but we're the ones in the front line bringing affordable travel to Canadians.”

Jones would not disclose how much Flair pays monthly to service its debt or how much it has paid off thus far. But he reiterated that the airline is not going anywhere.

“We've got a plan in place,” he said. “We're fully current with it and nobody's going to be seizing and selling the assets of Flair.”

Jones also pledged that flights will not be impacted by the airline’s tax debts.

“I can say that our sales haven't even blinked over the last few days,” he said. 

“Not only would you not have cheap fares on Flair, you wouldn't have cheap fares on the other big airlines either because they'd have the market back to themselves.”


Boeing delays

Flair had ordered six new Boeing 737 Max jetliners for 2024, but delays with Boeing have meant that none of the six new aircraft will join Flair’s fleet this year.

“There are delays out of Boeing that are well documented,” he said.

“Those aircraft were no longer able to be delivered at the time they were going to deliver into the late fall, which is not a great time for airlines to be growing. So this year will be one of low or no growth, but we expect to be back to full growth in 2025.”

Boeing has faced scrutiny over its safety record recently after the door of an Alaska Airlines flight blowout midflight. 

With files from The Canadian Press and Bloomberg News