"Thank you and goodbye": Canadian takes us on-board the final Lynx Air flight

Last month, Lynx Air dropped sudden, shocking news for its passengers.

On February 22, it announced it would be shutting down for good, filing for creditor protection.

The low-cost airline posted the news on its website, stating that Monday, February 26, at 12:01 am would be its last day of operation.

Aviation enthusiast Alex Praglowski had a personal connection with Lynx Air, having witnessed the delivery of its first plane and travelled on board its inaugural flight.

So, he wasn’t going to miss his opportunity to sit in the cabin of the airline’s final flight on February 25 from Vancouver to Calgary.

Praglowski, who resides in Calgary, documented his experience on board the last Lynx Air flight in a YouTube video.

“I do want to make one thing clear, though: this wasn’t just for the sake of making a YouTube video, but for documenting history and for the hundreds of talented people at Lynx Air who worked so hard to make the airline what it was, giving them the send-off they deserve,” he said in the video.

The aviation enthusiast says that in the last few days of operation, the carrier’s flights were scheduled so that it could get all of its airplanes and crews back to Calgary, where it’s based.

Lynx’s final scheduled departure — and the one Praglowski nabbed a seat on — was set to leave Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on Sunday, February 25, at around 8:30 pm.

Alex Praglowski Aviation/YouTube

“Though it wouldn’t be the last Lynx Air flight to land, it would be the last revenue flight to take off,” he explained.

In classic Canadian air travel fashion, the final flight didn’t take off as smoothly as planned.

Praglowski says that as boarding timing approached, he noticed that there only seemed to be five crew members around the gate.

There are typically six — four cabin crew and two pilots.

He says this observation was followed by a whopping three-hour delay, which alarmed passengers because Lynx Air said operations would cease at 12:01 am MT on February 26.

The new departure time given to the flight was well after the deadline of 1:45 am PST. The delay was apparently because one of the four cabin crew members was a no-show.

“They can legally fly with three, but it would mean bumping 60 or so people onto a, well, non-existent next flight,” Praglowski explained.

Alex Praglowski Aviation/YouTube

Thankfully, the delay was solved. Lynx’s solution was to use a cabin crew from an inbound flight from Toronto to operate the final flight at full capacity.

“You try explaining all of that to a group of tired and non-aviation-savvy people,” said the aviation enthusiast. “I genuinely felt bad for the [customer service agents], especially when the louder people just could not wrap their head around this.”

He added that passengers were assured that the flight was still happening despite the 12:01 am deadline.

The plane’s arrival from Toronto marked the final arrival of a Lynx aircraft into Vancouver, which Praglowski says happened to be the same gate the inaugural flight arrived at just under two years ago.

Passengers were finally allowed to board the plane, which set its mood lighting to red in honour of Lynx Air’s signature colour.

“We’d like to thank you for your patronage over the two years and your patience as well for this evening,” announced the pilot over the comms.

Upon landing, a flight attendant gave some bittersweet parting words to the passengers.

“We sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts for choosing to fly with Lynx Air this evening,” they said. “Unfortunately, this is the last day of our operations. We have been connecting Canadians for the last two years with affordable low fares… This is your Calgary base crew at Lynx Air; now signing off. Thank you, and goodbye.”

You can virtually experience the last Lynx Air flight in Praglowski’s YouTube video below.