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B.C. charter airline flies to the rescue of stranded tourists

NEWS HIGHLIGHT

B.C. charter airline flies to the rescue
of stranded tourists

A small charter airline based in Kelowna, B.C., is winning praise after playing the role of good Samaritan to stranded tourists.


March 4, 2010  By The Canadian Press

March 4, 2010, Kelowna, B.C. – A small charter airline based in
Kelowna, B.C., is winning praise after playing the role of good
Samaritan to stranded tourists.

Flair Airlines, the charter arm of Kelowna Flightcraft, flew to Caribbean and Mexican destinations at its own expense last week, to collect about 900 stranded passengers.

The mercy flights came after one of Flair's main clients, Ottawa-based tour company, Go Travel South, went out of business.

Flair general manager Chris LaPointe confirms it cost the airline $300,000 to retrieve the tourists, but he says Flair's generosity could pay off.

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He says the company is now quoting on several new contracts that developed in the wake of the rescues.

But LaPointe says, whatever happens, the rescue flights were the "right thing to do.''

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