Flair tees up support for child trafficking fight at Driving For Change

(Updated Sep. 28)

Just days after Flair Airlines CEO Len Corrado and Flair Vacations president Nicole Bursey unveiled their winter strategy to PAX, Flair took its energy from the skies to the greens on Thursday (Sept. 24), lending its support to the fight against child trafficking.

Flair Airlines and Flair Vacations were golf sponsors of the fourth annual Driving For Change (DFC) tournament at Royal Woodbine Golf Club in Toronto, a sold-out event that brought together more than 150 golfers and over 30 corporate partners from the business and travel communities for golf, dinner and both a silent and live auction. 

Aviation has "both an opportunity and a responsibility to recognize and combat trafficking," Kim Bowie, Flair's director of communications, told attendees before golfers headed out to the fairway. She also thanked DFC’s founders Pauline and Eric Rodriguez for growing the event over the past three years.

"This can really happen to anybody"

Founded in 2023, DFC has raised $312,000 to date, including $152,000 last year. In 2026, net proceeds will go to BridgeNorth and the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women, which support trafficking survivors and vulnerable people across the GTA.

Rodriguez told PAX that the tournament sold out four months before the event, with the goal being to top last year's total. The cause, he said, resonates because it can touch anyone.

"Everybody's got sons, daughters, people that are vulnerable, and this can really happen to anybody," he said. This year's tournament raised $148,000.

According to Bowie, the partnership began earlier this summer, when DFC reached out to see if Flair could "get behind" the mission. Bowie shared that Corrado, who is passionate about the communities Flair serves, didn't need much convincing.

For an airline, the issue hits especially close to home, Bowie explained, since "human trafficking is something that we see a lot of in aviation." 

Flair's goal, she explained, goes beyond the flight itself. 

"We don't want to just be an airline that flies in and flies out," she said. "We want to have a lasting impact and make sure that we're not just serving our folks up in the air, but also on the ground."

The event timing also worked in Flair Vacations' favour with the tour operator officially going live next month ahead of its first departures on Nov. 1.

"This is a great opportunity for us to get the brand out there alongside of Flair Airlines, show that we're together, but also some differentiations in terms of the services that we offer," Bowie told PAX.

It's also part of Flair's broader push to work more closely with the travel trade. "We're looking forward to a greater involvement with travel agents and tour operators," Bowie said.

The trade turns out

The Flair brands had company from the travel industry – The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) returned as dinner sponsor for a third year, while Manulife served as beverage sponsor and Nexus Tours as lunch sponsor.

Sunwing Group was also among the corporate partners on hand, having supported DFC across all three of its tournaments to date. 

"Tourism is about more than beautiful destinations," shared JTB’s Racquel Queensborough with attendees just before dinner was served. According to Queensborough, this means a responsibility "to support safe, sustainable, and responsible tourism practices that protect the people and the communities we serve."

Anna Roberts, MP for King–Vaughan, also took to the podium, revealing that human trafficking is a $239.1 billion global industry annually, and that Ontario is the second-worst province in the country for it. 

This fall, Roberts will be introducing a bill to keep traffickers "behind bars where they belong for a long, long time," as well as pushing for fines on perpetrators and buyers to fund survivor recovery.

For Flair, it was a day that tied together everything both brands have been building toward: supporting the communities they serve and inviting the trade to be part of it.

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