The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

2 I NEWS = JEFF OUTHIT 3 g 8 By e 5 $ 5 = s 3 2 5 Flair Airlines plans & more flights this year out of | the regional airport, add- 3 ing flights to places in the g US., Mexico and B.C. while s to Halifax 8 and Vancouver. i The discount airline re- vealed its 2023 schedule Tuesday. It includes two new destinations from the Region of Waterloo Inter- national Airport. In May, service will be- gin three times weekly be- tween the regional airport and Abbotsford, B.C. In De- cember, service will begin ‘ee times weekly be- tween the regional a airport and Puerto Vall: , a re- sort destination i in Mexico Other planned changes this year include more flights to Florida (Ft. Lau- derdale and Orlando) and more flights to Cancun, a resort destination in Mexi- co. Theairline plans to trim one-third of its Rights Aa Vancouver an flights to Halifax. It ah not resume flights to Montreal, after weak sales led it to suspend the service in Jan- uary. “We didn't get the de- mand that we anticipated," said Garth Lund, the air- line's chief commercial a ficer. "We're not plann: to bring back the Montreal routes. We'll be focusing on more popular apstinations, part ar eularly the Nair has based two jet- liners at the regional air- port. It says it will add a third in June. It planned to do this last year but de- layed it. The new jetliner will bring about 50 airline- related jobs. The Edmonton-based airline has brought about a passenger surge after Wa- DIVERSIONS terloo regional govern- ment gave it temporary, ex- clusive rights to certain routes. Airpo! passengers re than doubled last year to 375,000, the most ev- “soca Estimated my 000 passen; may use the airport this year. Regional government has in turn spent $44 million to expand the airport for more pas- sengers. Flair president Stephen Jones sees this as a worth- while deal, The airline presence beoaeht sa. aillion to the regional economy by last December, generated by new jobs and other airport- related spending. "Straight away, you can see the payback for the community,” Jones said. Lund described the air- port expansion at Breslau as functional. "I think the expansion the airport has Mathew McCarthy photo A flight from Ft. Lauderdale flies behind a farm as it approaches the Waterloo International Airport in Breslau in late December. Flair is expanding its flights to places in the U.S. Mexico and B.C. while trimming flights to Halifax and Vancouver. undergone to increase its capacity has been done ina smart ," he said. "It's not some palatial in- frastructure. It's really fo- cused on a low-cost model. It's very functional, it gets the job done, and the air- port can still operate at a reasonable cost structure and then offer reasonable fees to airlines." Regional taxpayers will subsidize airport opera- tions with almost $5 mil- lion this year, down from FLAIR AIRLINES ADDS NEW FLIGHTS BUT TRIMS OTHERS AT AIRPORT annual subsidies of $6 mil- lion before Flair arrived in costs have also surged, fi- nancial records show. Flair has seen rough patches at the airport, cluding 27 flights cancelled over eight days last Decem- ber because of mainte- nance issues. Problems be- gan Nov. 25 after a Flair jet with 140 people on board ran 150 metres offthe end of the runway to stop in the mud. No one was hurt. The mishap is under investiga- tion by a federal safety agency. Jones said Flair has im- proved its national reliabil- ity. The airline said it com- pleted almost 95 per cent of scheduled flights last year and has completed 97 per we've focused on a lot," Jones said. Crossword puzzle answers use American spelling CROSSWORD SUDOKU BEGINNER ACROSS 43. Zest 19. Season starters 1. Drenches 48, Leg front 21. Harvesting 5 8 146 5.Horse’s relative 50. Tear 23. Yellow-pages 6 9 5 8. Swindle 52. Avenue fillers 12, Hateful 53. Large lump 25, Friendly 8 914] 1 13.Stopover spot 54. Hockey-rink 26. Land document 1 14, Mexican food surface 27. Poisonous item 55. Cover with gold serpents 6 3 2 15. Restaurant list 56. Bacon's partner 9, 8. Cow product 16. Couple 57. Dawn drops 29, Weaving, as hair 9 3 415 17. Secondhand 58. Building annexes. 30. 18. Beginning part 32 None 1{5]4 7 20. Scorched DOWN 34, Wondrous fear 6 8 1 22. Adhesive 1. 18-wheeler 39, Pungent 24.Law____ order 2. Chef's need 40. So 3 7{2|8 51/643 27. Wandered 3. Ale measure } Soprano, 29. 31." Hall" 4. Garble 42. Writing fluids 33. Whistles 5, Rescue 44. Craving 7 oa 34, Each 6.Social sights 45: Loam al Inj g 36.0ish 7. Nose 46. Like a beanpole (al ay 36, Drooped 8. Amaze 47. Bookies fa Atal 5 37. Take tothe slopes 9, Flamenco concems Bt intel § 38.Black bird instrument 48. This lady la on 3 41. Nightclub for «10. Serve fora point 49. Cuddle ig fain dancing 11. Trendy 51. Sunday bench inl lols)