New low cost airline suspends service pending licence review

January 18, 2016 - 1:31 PM Adam Proskiw INFO-TELnews.ca

KELOWNA – A new airline that started offering domestic flights from Kelowna for under $100 is suspending service while the Canadian Transportation Agency reviews their licence. NewLeaf Travel Company said customers who already purchased tickets since their Jan. 5 starting date will get full refunds. “During this uncertain time, we didn’t want to put anyone with existing bookings at risk, and we wanted to give customers time to make other travel arrangements,” NewLeaf Chief Executive Officer Jim Young says in a media release. “NewLeaf aims to resume taking reservations in the spring. Young says the reason they launched Jan. 6 is because they believed the Transportation Agency would allow them to operate under the licence of Flair Airlines, the Kelowna-based airline with which they have a charter arrangement. NewLeaf had planned to market and sell air services to the public using Flair’s fleet of five Boeing 737-400 jets. They announced earlier this month they would have hubs in Kelowna, Winnipeg and Hamilton and airfares as low as $89. The CTA is reviewing whether persons who do not operate any aircraft, but market and sell air services to the public, should be required to hold Agency licences, the release sent Monday Jan. 18 says. “Now, there is ambiguity in the air as to whether we need to amend the relationship with our air service provider, or whether we need to have a licence ourselves,” Young says in the release. “As with any success that threatens to change the status quo, there are those that will resist that change and take any measures necessary to maintain the existing playing field, even if it is to the detriment of the vast majority and the benefit of the very few."