Sunwing has 'contingency plan' as Ottawa airport says it is cancelling licence of ground crew contractor
Ground work — including aircraft marshalling and baggage handling — is done by a third party, Menzies, for both Sunwing and Flair Airlines, according to the airport authority
Staff Reporter, Ottawa Citizen
Published Mar 15, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 2 minute read
Sunwing Airlines says it has come up with a plan following the Ottawa airport’s decision to revoke the operating licence of the company that takes care of ground-handling work for both Sunwing and Flair Airlines.
The airport authority said on Wednesday that the decision to sever the licence was made after a “degradation of service levels” was noticed related to ground-handling activities in recent weeks. That work — including aircraft marshalling and baggage handling — is done for both airlines by a third party, Menzies, according to the airport authority.
Sunwing has “contingency plans to maintain normal operations and mitigate the impact to our customers,” the company said in an unattributed statement to this newspaper Thursday.
The plan is to have the company’s “airport services management team on site working with various stakeholders at the airport,” it stated, without further elaboration.
The airport authority said Wednesday that it gave Menzies a 30-day notice that its operating licence would be cut off after previous written warnings because “the issues reached untenable levels in the past week.
“The service levels passengers from both airlines have had to endure do not meet the customer experience threshold the (airport authority) is committed to facilitate,” it stated.
Flair said in an unattributed statement sent by email Wednesday that the severing of the Menzies licence will have “no impact” on its operations. The airline offered no further clarification.
“We work closely in cooperation with our airport partners and will continue to provide low-fare flying from Ottawa,” the company said.
This newspaper has also reached out to Menzies for comment.
FlyYOW vice-president and spokesperson Krista Kealey explained that Menzies needs to have a licence to be able to operate at the airport, which is what the authority is cancelling. The airport cannot cancel contracts Menzies has with other parties, such as the airlines.
Meanwhile, Flair Airlines has filed a $50-million lawsuit against several plane-leasing companies over the “unlawful” seizure of four of its aircraft over the weekend.
The filings in Ontario Superior Court state that a trio of leasing firms found a better deal for the Boeing 737 Maxes with a third party and then “set Flair up” for default, amounting to an illegal termination of leases.
“The seizures were orchestrated in a bad faith and malicious manner that inflicted the maximum possible harm on Flair, including by interfering with its passenger relationships and trust,” the statement of claim reads.
“The lessors sent agents to seize the aircraft in the middle of the night as passengers were boarding planes for spring break vacations.”
Flair said it received no notice, precluding the discount carrier from alerting or rebooking customers. The agents arrived at airports in Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo, Ont., at 3 a.m. EDT to confiscate the registration certificates and technical logs on board — the aviation equivalent of taking the car keys — the company said.
None of the allegations in Flair’s lawsuit have been tested in court.
With files from The Canadian Press.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-ground-handling-crews-for-flair-sunwing
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Reminds me of the one and only time I took a flight with Flair out of YOW about 1.5 years ago. The person in front of me at check-in's last name was Menzies. The agent said something like, "Hey, we work for Menzies." The passenger said, "is that a good thing?" and the agent say, "No!" 
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