Flair CEO blasts media depiction of tax debts, pledges to continue operations

The CEO of Flair Airlines is criticizing media coverage of the airline’s tax debts as “sensationalist” and claiming that his company’s bills have had no impact on operations.

This month, it was revealed that Flair owes $67.2 million in unpaid taxes and that the Canada Revenue Agency obtained an order for the seizure and sale of the carrier's property.

In a Wednesday interview, Flair CEO Stephen Jones dismissed the prospect of the CRA confiscating Flair aircraft, and repeatedly criticized the news media’s framing of the story.

“I don't think it does our customers and consumers in Canada any favours for you guys to be putting the more sensationalist angle on this,” Jones told BNN Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman.