Good morning from Calgary International Airport! My name is Alex, and welcome to this trip report.
Today, I’m off to Vancouver with Flair Airlines, on board their Boeing 737-800!
In the past few months, Flair Airlines has made headlines for their rapid expansion with the
addition of 9 Boeing 737 MAXs to their fleet (at the time of uploading) with even more on the way.
They still have the three Boeing 737-800s though, and they’ll be
keeping these until the end of their leases.
This quick trip to Vancouver would be my first time flying out of Concourse A here in Calgary since February of 2020.
To cut costs, it was closed to passengers or in very limited use for most of the past year and a half.
It is arguably the nicest of the three domestic concourses though, so I’m glad
to be flying out of here again!
We’ll be departing from gate A18, and parked at the next gate over is this 737 MAX heading off to Waterloo.
My flight was actually supposed to be on one of Flair’s MAXs, but given that the seat layouts
on the 800s and the MAXs are nearly identical, they seem to use the types interchangeably.
Here’s our 737-800 arriving in some beautiful morning light on the inbound
flight from Vancouver, registered as Charlie Foxtrot Foxtrot Lima Alpha.
This aircraft previously flew with Primera Air, briefly that is until that airline shut down,
and then joined Flair in early 2019. Although it’s not a MAX, I’m actually
kind of glad to be flying this particular plane since it’s a pretty significant one for Flair.
Not only was it their first 737NG that wasn’t a wet lease from another airline,
but it was the very first airplane to feature their new branding. I was also
there to see it arrive in Canada for the very first time on its delivery flight from Europe!
Although some might call it “questionable”, the livery has really grown on me in the past
two years, and their revised livery on the MAXs has tweaked it to look just right.
So without further ado, let’s go check out this 737-800!
My seat for today is 4F, in the first few rows of the cabin.
You all know by now that I like my engine views, and that’s exactly why I picked this seat!
The legroom in this row is actually surprisingly decent! I‘d probably choose
an exit row for a longer flight, and have done so in the past, but for this one hour
hop to Vancouver, it’s pretty much ideal. You may notice these seats are a little bit
different than on Flair’s other aircraft. They’re much slimmer than most seats, and don’t have a ton
of padding. Basically, they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect from an ultra low cost carrier.
That also does mean that the armrests are a bit smaller and the seatback pocket is
mainly only big enough for a water bottle, but still. Not bad at all!
I’ll take a closer look around the cabin once we’re airborne,
so for now, here’s the departure from Calgary, off of runway 17R!
On the climb out from Calgary, we got a brief look at the eastern slopes of
the Rocky Mountains, which is always a treat on this route.
Those quickly disappeared though as we climbed above the clouds on our way to the coast.
As far as the rest of the seat goes, there is a fairly bare-bones tray table that doesn’t move.
In the seatback pocket, you’ll find an air sickness bag and a safety card.
At the time, there was no buy-on-board service available, although it’s worth mentioning that
Flair just recently brought that back, so there should be some items available on most flights.
As an ultra-low-cost carrier, Flair naturally has an all-economy layout on its 737s.
This 737-800 seats the maximum number of 189 passengers in 32 rows.
In the back of the aircraft are the usual two lavatories as you’d expect,
and this one is a fairly decent size.
One interesting thing about this particular plane and its slimline
seats are that the exit row seats are actually slightly wider than normal.
As you can see, there isn’t a compartment underneath the armrest that the tray table would
typically fold into, and it just kind of stays there between the seats for some added width.
I find Flair’s 737-800 cabins all have some unique quirks to them,
from the seats here on FFLA to the AirBerlin logos on LC and LJ, plus LJ’s Boeing Sky Interior.
All three of the 737-800s are also named after influential people in Flair’s history,
and this particular one was named only a few months ago, after Captain Walter
Kachur. Born in 1931, he had a storied career flying in the Canadian Navy, in the Arctic,
and even helped the Vancouver Canucks acquire and operate their own Boeing 727. He partnered with
Flair founder Jim Rogers to launch the airline in 2004, and stayed there until his retirement
in 2019. He passed away in March of 2021, at which point Flair named FFLA in his honour.
Long-term, Flair will eventually have an all-MAX fleet, and obviously it’s not public knowledge how
long these 737-800 leases are. In the meantime though, these -800s may have their quirks,
but they’re still entirely enjoyable to fly on. Pretty soon, the typically-overcast clouds of
the lower mainland got closer, and here’s the arrival into Vancouver, landing on runway 08L.
So, that was Flair Airlines’ 737-800. Although the type is not exactly the most unique airliner
out there, I personally find these Flair ones to be pretty interesting, especially when you put
them in the context of the airline’s history. I first flew on their -800 two years ago as I’m
uploading this, in November of 2019. Back then, they still had quite a few of the 737-400s around,
and those have since left the fleet. The 737-800s though, do still hold up,
and for an ultra-low-cost carrier, it’s still an enjoyable experience.
Flair has an ambitious goal of growing to 50 aircraft in the next 5 years,
a process kicked off by their MAX announcement back in January. Even if the 737-800s
may ultimately be transitional airplanes for Flair, they were very instrumental in bridging
the gap between the charter-era 737-400s and today’s MAXs. I am looking forward to seeing
them grow even more, and I look forward to flying with them again very soon!
Thank you so much for watching this look at Flair’s 737-800, and I’ll see you next time!