With a full day here in Vancouver, I of course could not just sit still. I took the opportunity to sample two ULCC (ultra-low-cost carriers) here in Canada. Lynx Air is the latest ULCC launched in Calgary earlier this year and I just want to catch a flight on them before it might go under. I still don’t know if Canada can support two major airline and three ULCCs given the limited routes that they can run. Flair Airlines is a bit more established and I have originally planned to fly them last year, but due to the suspension of Qatar Airways’ Doha to Hong Kong flight last year, I had to push back my flight on Flair. To my surprise, I was able to savage some values from my original Montreal to Toronto flight. Honestly both airlines run a very typical ULCC operation but both flights went better than I have expected. Both flights were on time. Flair is a bit more unreliable as they run a tighter schedule, but I was back in Vancouver more or less on time. I of course chose to fly an early morning flight and padded my schedule accordingly. Of course choosing to fly a major trunk route between Vancouver and Calgary minimizes my chances to be caught up with any mishaps, or allow me backup plans. Since the route itself is not super interesting, I will not write much but let my pictures showing the comparison between these two latest Canadian startup airlines.

Full album link:
https://photobucket.com/u/Carfield76/a/ ... 80c07e8d7b

June 10, 2022
Lynx Air Y9 101 YVR-YYC Lv0825 Arr1043 Boeing 737 Max 8 C-FULI

Flair Airlines F8 287 YYC-YVR Lv1340 Arr1405 Boeing 737 Max 8 C-FLRS

Check in:
Both airlines offer online check-in, but I wasn’t able to use it for both flights. I think it might have to do with me booking an exit row seat, as well as not being a Canadian. Lynx Air does not have an airport check in fee, but Flair Airlines has one. Anyway I don’t have any choices.

Chcck-in for Lynx Air was pretty straightforward, and yes, they did weigh my small backpack. (I stored my bag in Vancouver airport). They checked my vaccination certificate and then issued my boarding pass. I managed to miss the crowd too. After I checked-in, the line grew a bit, but nothing too bad, as there were plenty of staffs. BTW, their check-in area was in the international area, but you have to walk back to Concourse B for security.





For Flair Airlines, I arrived super early and the friendly check-in agent understood my worries. She told me not to worry about the fee, as their website had plenty of issues. They still did not understand why some passengers managed to check in successfully and why some could not. I was not charged anything.





Boarding:
In order to take some clean cabin shots, I paid for priority boarding for both airlines. Both airlines enforce their priority boarding so that is a good thing.

Lynx Air – the inbound flight arrived early from Calgary and boarding began on time at 7:57am.










Flair Airlines – our aircraft did a morning rotation Vancouver-Calgary-Victoria-Calgary-Vancouver, and our aircraft arrived late from Victoria due to weather over there, but nothing too bad. I have been tracking the flights for weeks and noticed that they could run late if they could not land in Victoria due to weather. Fortunately, the delay was not bad. We boarded on time at 1:24pm.

Cabin:
Lynx Air of course has the nicer cabin, as they are brand new and they don’t lease aircraft like Flair Airlines. However those slim seats are painful to sit on for an extended period of time. I will not consider flying Lynx Air on any flight above two hours even in exit rows.








Exit seat:










Flair Airlines has couple different seats for their Max 8, and I was on an obviously “meant to be for another airline” second-hand Max 8. However the seats are slightly more padded and comfortable. But I know their main 737 Max 8s feature slimline seats like Lynx Air.

















Exit Seat:




Both airlines don’t have power ports and their seats don’t recline. Honestly what you expect from a low cost airline.

Bathroom check: I used the bathrooms in the aft cabin for both flights. They are identical.

Lynx Air:





Flair Airlines:

In-flight experience:
Lynx Air’s flight attendants were very cheerful and more enthusiastic, but they also have less to do. Lynx Air has chosen not to conduct any onboard service at all. There is no buy on board service at all. They offer water on transcontinental flights, but that’s it.

Flair Airlines has finally reintroduced buy on board service and they offer a limited array of soft drinks, hot beverages, and snacks for sale. Plenty of passengers make purchases despite the short flight. Their flight attendants were a bit more jaded and Lynx Air wins in this category. I did not buy anything, as their items offered were nothing special. If they had a special branded snack box, I would buy one. The rudeness of the F/A was also a turn off and I did not feel that I needed to contribute to their commission.

Departure and Arrival:

Departure from Vancouver
Lynx Air took off from R/W8R at 8:37am and flying time was fifty-four minutes at 37,000ft.






Approaching Calgary:















Arrival in Calgary
Y9 101 landed on R/W35L at 10:31am and parked at gate A19 five minutes later.


Departure from Calgary:
Flair Airlines F9 287 took off from R/W29 at 2:13pm and flying time was an hour and fourteen minutes with a cruising attitude of 30,000 feet.








Mid-Flight







Arrival into Vancouver
We landed on R/W8L at 2:27pm and parked at gate B19 at 2:36pm.











In conclusion, both Flair Airlines and Lynx Air are decent ULCC and are a bit better than the same ULCCs in US. They both use Boeing 737 Max 8 (well Flair has a few 737-800s) on this major trunk route and you pay for what you get. I don’t think I am desperate to step on board on either airline anytime soon but understand that their roles in Canada especially both AC and WS has relatively high fares. They truly make air travel more affordable. If I have to choose one, I will choose Lynx Air over Flair Airlines, despite not having any buy on board program, which I am sure Lynx Air will introduce soon. It takes Flair almost a year to bring back BOB, so hopefully Lynx Air will offer something more extensive, like fresh food. I hope you enjoy this short trip report!

Carfield

Flair Airlines has couple different seats for their Max 8, and I was on an obviously “meant to be for another airline” second-hand Max 8. However the seats are slightly more padded and comfortable.

I tried to find out which airline this Max8 was originally build for, but no success! Any more information, anybody?!

I don't believe F8 flight attendants are on commission. You can read the collective agreement online. They are paid hourly.

You state that Lynx had friendly attendants, but had uncomfortable seats and no food or drink (even for sale) yet you still rated them as your preference? Why is that?

YEGFlyer wrote:

I don't believe F8 flight attendants are on commission. You can read the collective agreement online. They are paid hourly.

You state that Lynx had friendly attendants, but had uncomfortable seats and no food or drink (even for sale) yet you still rated them as your preference? Why is that?

Well if you read carefully, I chose Lynx Air because of poor service on Flair that I had witnessed. Plus the Flair Max 8 that I was on was not the usual Max 8. It was clearly a bought or leased plane from a third airline. Therefore it has nicer padded seats. Flair has the same slim and uncomfortable seats on most of their own Max 8s that most guests will be on, as Lynx Air or most ULCC across the world. Most importantly, the flight attendants on Flair were indifferent and rude. Lynx Air F/As are more well-presented and friendlier. Given everything was the same in terms of the whole ULCC travel experience, Lynx Air at least has some friendly F/As. About BOB, it matters on longer flights that I don't intend to fly. For a short route like YVR-YYC, BOB will be nice to have but not the main criteria. Lynx Air is the better choice here.

Fair enough!

Every time I have flown Flair, it has had slightly different seats. I don't really know what their standard seat is.

Carfield wrote:

Cabin:
Lynx Air of course has the nicer cabin, as they are brand new and they don’t lease aircraft like Flair Airlines.

All 5 of the Lynx aircraft are leased, not that being a lease dictates the quality of the cabin.