Good afternoon from Edmonton International Airport!
My name is Alex, and welcome to a very special trip report!
Today’s a big day for Canada’s Flair Airlines.
They’re launching revenue flights with a brand new aircraft type for them -
the Boeing 737 MAX!
Back in January, Flair announced that they’d be adding 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8s to the fleet,
and the first one was delivered to them at the end of May.
The second and third aircraft have also been delivered, as of the time of uploading, with
many more to come.
Flair is headquartered right here in Alberta’s capital city, so it’s no surprise that they’re
launching passenger flights with the MAX from here.
This first revenue MAX flight for Flair will be a 3.5 hour hop over to Toronto.
Now, I actually got to Edmonton several hours early that day because... well, let’s just
say Flair put on one heck of a show!
Although I did pay for my own ticket and seat on board the flight, Flair and EIA were generous
enough to invite me airside to watch the aircraft do those celebratory low passes, along with
a water cannon salute!
After that amazing photo opportunity and privilege, it was off to Executive Flight Center, where
the aircraft was on display for a media event.
C-FLEJ is the first of many 737 MAXs to be delivered to Flair,
and first flew in 2019.
Though it’s technically just under 2 years old, Flair is the very first operator of the aircraft.
This, along with most other Flair MAXs, are all ‘white-tail’ aircraft, meaning their
original customer never took the planes or ceased operations before they were delivered,
as is the case with the likes of Jet Airways and Air Italy.
That’s also why the winglets are painted white for now.
From what I understand, that was due to the delivery schedule, and the fourth MAX onwards
will all have that classic Flair green.
The registration also seems like a nod to Flair’s prior history, seeing as
FLEJ was formerly a 737-400 with the brown paint.
And honestly, watching Flair go from a charter operator with the older 737-400s to this in
just a few years, is pretty cool to watch!
Everyone also got a chance to walk through the plane, but I’ll show you the interior
in more detail a bit later on.
Meanwhile back in the terminal, there was even more to come at gate 62, which I have
to say, might be the nicest one here in Edmonton!
I could do without the double paned windows, but after getting to nerd out around the plane
for two hours or so, I think I’ve got more than enough angles!
With that, let’s go check out the Flair Airlines 737 MAX!
Flair Airlines has 189 seats on their 737 MAXs in their usual all economy configuration.
737 MAXs all come with Boeing Sky Interior as standard, and it never fails to impress!
These grey seats all look pretty stylish, although the cabin might look even better
with a bit of Flair green!
And yes, the new airplane smell is still there!
My seat over to Toronto today is 16A, in the second overwing exit row.
Those of you who’ve followed me for a while now know that I’ve got quite long legs,
so given the occasion, I paid a bit extra for more space to actually enjoy the flight.
Normally I’d sit further up for a better view looking back at the engine, but this
is one of Flair’s longer routes.
If this were a shorter flight like Vancouver, I’d definitely tough it out in another seat.
The exit row proved to be a wise decision this time around though, since I was the only
one in the entire row!
That being said, a good friend of mine, Downwind Aviation, was sitting further up and managed
to film the engine view with my GoPro anyway, so a big thank you to him!
Do go check out his channel for some more angles of this flight coming up.
I’ll take my usual closer look around the cabin once we’re in the air.
In the meantime, please enjoy this stormy takeoff from Edmonton, off of runway 02!
After a fair bit of cloud surfing and a few bumps on the way out, let’s take a look
at the seat.
As you’d expect, there’s a fairly sturdy tray table that slides out for some extra reach.
The seat pocket is also reasonably large, with plenty of space to store loose items.
In the seatback pocket is an air sickness bag and this safety card, which covers the
737-800 plus the MAX 8.
In normal times, Flair would also have a buy-on-board menu here too.
The selection, at least from what I recall from January 2020, was pretty decent.
Unfortunately Flair isn’t offering any sort of food or drink service at the moment, owing
to covid, but they did at least make an announcement about that in the terminal so it wasn’t
a surprise.
These exit row seats do also have movable armrests, so I really had a ton of stretching room!
Each seat also has a reading light plus an air vent.
As we were boarding, as another bonus, every passenger actually got a gift bag with some
goodies inside from Flair and Boeing!
In there was a Flair Airlines hat, a Boeing lanyard, some EIA branded peppermints, a 737
pen, a Flair MAX postcard, along with some chocolates, granola bites, Pringles, and this
Flair and Boeing branded water bottle.
With those snacks from Flair, plus the stuff I brought with me, and all of this space,
I was super comfortable!
Unfortunately though, the in-flight entertainment, which is accessed through the aircraft’s
wifi, just wasn’t working.
Flair does have an app for it that you can download, and I was looking forward to seeing
it work for myself, but I’ll try it another time!
Shortly after I filmed those clips though, the seatbelt sign came back on as we passed
through a pretty big area of turbulence.
It lasted a surprisingly long time given we were all the way up at 41,000 feet, but honestly,
it felt to me like a normal day flying around Calgary in the Cessna!
Like I said before, there are 189 seats on Flair’s 737 MAXs.
The extra legroom options for the vertically gifted include the first row, along with the
exit rows in rows 15 and 16.
I did try out a normal seat for myself for comparison, and it is a little tight.
That said, most people aren’t 6’8”, so if you’re not a walking skyscraper like
me, you’d probably be just fine.
Again though, I think I’d tough it out for a shorter flight, maybe a Calgary to Vancouver one.
I just can’t get enough of those LEAP engines!
The rear lavatories on Flair’s MAXs actually aren’t too bad.
They might look a bit tight, but the lights are super bright and the mirrors do help with the illusion.
Pretty soon though, the sun began to set, with some spectacular views out the windows!
Now obviously, here’s where painted winglets would really come in handy, but with Flair’s
aggressive expansion plans, I think they’re just happy to have the planes flying in time!
Even as I’m editing this the day after the flight, both the first and second MAXs have
flown multiple flights already.
It seems safe to say this summer will be a pretty busy one for Flair.
It wasn’t long after the sunlight faded that the lights of the Greater Toronto area
came into view and we began our final descent.
Here’s our arrival into Pearson, landing on runway 05!
So, that was the inaugural flight of Flair’s 737 MAX, and what a day it was!
I’d estimate today’s flight was about 40% full, although it’s worth mentioning
that this flight left just two hours after another one heading to Toronto.
Flair’s MAX seats are pretty comfortable, and even with the cost of the extra legroom
seats, this was genuinely a pretty cheap flight.
I’m really thankful to Flair for the opportunity to be airside with them for the occasion,
especially standing right in front of that water salute!
That was a really special moment I won’t forget.
Thinking back to my first flight with Flair in 2018 on their 737-400, I don’t think
I could’ve imagined them flying some 737 MAXs just 3 years later.
Even when they added their first 737-800s, MAXs didn’t seem like something they’d
be able to get for a while.
It’s safe to say they and their investors at 777 Partners jumped on a great opportunity
to get some very competitive airplanes.
I was also pleasantly surprised at the extent Flair went to commemorate the occasion - the
low passes, water salute, media event, gift bags, kudos to them for pulling it off, especially
during covid!
Speaking of putting on a show though, there was one last surprise in store - I didn’t
know this before we left, but they had planned another water salute here in Toronto!
Honestly, just what a great day to welcome this new aircraft to the fleet!
I wish Flair the very best of luck with this expansion of theirs, and I’m looking forward to seeing more green in the sky!
Thank you so much for watching this special video with Flair Airlines!
I've been looking forward to making this video for a while, so hopefully you
enjoyed it as much as I did flying it!
Take care, and I'll see you next time.