Tennis star Genie Bouchard serves up new crew uniforms during Flair Airlines flight

O, Canada. Thank-you for opening your borders to vaccinated U.S. travelers once again. Come October, a handful of U.S. communities may be thanking you for Flair Airlines too.

First launched in 2017, the ultra-low-cost Canadian carrier (ULCC) plans to offer non-stop seasonal service, from Oct. 31 through March 25, between eight Canadian cities and six U.S destinations: Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Orlando-Sanford (SFB), Phoenix-Mesa (AZA), Palm Springs (PSP), McCarran International Airport (LAS), and Hollywood-Burbank Airport (BUR). The Burbank flights have yet to go on sale, but Flair says its plans to fly from the California airport are still a go.

As part of a rebranding campaign to celebrate the airline's growth and growing fleet of new aircraft, in May 2021 Flair introduced a new livery. The campaign continues today with the debut of the airline's new flight crew uniforms during a special event taking place on board a Boeing 737 MAX flying from Toronto to Montreal.

Joining the crew to model the new uniforms that Flair flight attendant and pilots will soon wear systemwide is Canadian tennis star Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard, who came to the world's attention when she reached the Wimbledon singles final in 2014. Today she's a sports analyst and fan favorite on social media.

"I'm thrilled to be part of an event that involves a true-to-themselves brand that walks the walk and cares about Canadians," Bouchard said in advance of the flight, "The company and crew are great people and allowing fans to be part of this special surprises makes it even better."

O' Canada: Smaller Canadian carriers see chance to seize US market share amid pandemic shake-up

While many airlines enlist the star power of well-known fashion houses and designers, Flair made a different choice when it came time to refresh and update its uniforms.

"Flair is not like normal high-cost legacy airlines with their expensive designers," Stephen Jones, Flair CEO told TPG, "Our uniform is designed by crew, for crew."

The flight attendants leading the uniform design project, Cody Klassen and Shannon Towler, were chosen "for their passion and taste, as well as an ability to get things done – they self-selected really," Jones told TPG. He added that during the design process "they received a huge amount of feedback from all crew members using survey tools and other workshops."

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The new, refreshed looks of the uniforms "aligns with Flair Airlines' mission of bringing style, flair, and choice back to the airline industry," said flight attendant, Shannon Towler. "Our top priority was comfort. We wanted everyone to feel amazing and look flawless."

Flair's previous uniform included black dress pants, a vest, white button up shirt, black tie, and formal blazer. The dresses, "had very minimal movement," said Towler. The new uniforms include a white sneaker, a casual dress pant, a black t-shirt, a dress, and a blazer with lots of flexibility. "The pieces look good on everyone," says Towler.

Flair's new uniform style is also universally inclusive, said flight attendant Cody Klassen, "Everything is gender fluid. Our crew can choose whichever pieces they feel most comfortable putting on their body." And yes, that includes the dresses, says Towler.

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Flair Airlines rapid expansion is being tested

Like many other airlines in North America, Flair Airlines is seeing extremely high bookings this summer. "With the Canadian vaccination rate now amongst the highest in the world we are seeing a real desire from Canadians to get out and travel again," Jones said. "This is largely a leisure-led rebound which is absolutely Flair's market."

Flair also joined other airlines in experiencing some customer service issues this summer tied to the strong rebound in bookings. And in mid-July the airline chose to shut down its customer service phone lines for several days so that its team could catch up on the backlog of passenger requests.

Those issues are being addressed. On Aug. 23, Flair Airlines will expand its customer service phone line hours to reach from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. MT. On Oct. 24, a week before Flair's flights to the United States begin, the airlines' customer service phone lines will begin operating 24/7.