Flair aircraft seizures came after months of missed payments and defaults, lessor says

Airborne Capital Ltd. also rejected claims from Flair's CEO that it was already shopping the seized aircraft to its rivals and that downplayed the amount of debt it owed.

The New York-based company that seized four leased aircraft from Flair Airlines last weekend says the move was a “last resort” following months of missed payments, denying accusations it was working with another carrier to push the low-cost airline out of business.

In its first public comments on the matter Tuesday, Airborne Capital Ltd. said in a statement to Global News that Flair was “regularly in default” and failed to make payments when due over a five-month period, despite numerous notices and “direct and regular contact” with the airline.

Those missed payments added up to millions of dollars, the lessor said — disputing statements from Flair’s chief executive this week that it owed about $1 million total.

“Terminating an aircraft lease is always a last resort, and such a decision is never taken lightly,” Airborne said.

“In this case, following numerous notices to Flair, it again failed to make payments when due and Airborne took steps to terminate the leasing of the aircraft.”

Tuesday’s statement came a day after Flair CEO Stephen Jones suggested Saturday’s seizures may have been instigated by another carrier attempting to disrupt Flair’s operations.

“We’ve come in and upset the cozy duopoly, and as a consequence people want us out of business,” he said at a news conference on Monday.

“And we do believe that there were negotiations going on behind the scenes between one of the majors and the lessor to hurt Flair by them offering probably above-market rates for the aircraft we’ve been leasing.”