Jetsgo Bye Bye
I can't stop giggling over all of this, but it's Airline Wank. Yup, Airlines. Always fun.

As most everyone in Canada probably knows by now, discount airline Jetsgo went under last week, right at the beginning of Spring Break -- one of the busiest flight times of the year. Specifically at 12:01 a.m. on March 11. This left over 1000 people unemployed, and 17000 people stranded at airports with only a sign saying that Jetsgo was no more for company.

Jetsgo was owned by Michel LeBlanc, who has been involved in two previous airline failures, most notable Canada 3000, which did a similiar "We're out of business" thing several years ago.

One interesting note: Jetsgo was taking reservations on their website until 11:00 p.m. on March 10th. Basically, up until 1 hour before they intended to stop business, they were taking people's money.

Friday morning, they informed everyone that they would not get any refunds from Jetsgo, nor would Jetsgo help them get home or to their travel destinations. They're to hold on to their tickets, and perhaps their credit card companies or the government would help them get their money back.

Isn't that nice? But, not wanky. Not yet...


According to LeBlanc, it's not his fault that the company went under, it's all because of rival Westjet.

"What we didn't incorporate in our business plan is that we would be spied upon, that people would lie about us and gossip about us," Leblanc told The Canadian Press in a broadside aimed squarely at WestJet chief executive Clive Beddoe.

Leblanc, whose company filed a $50-million suit against WestJet last fall for alleged corporate espionage, said his rival's tactics were the single biggest factor in Jetsgo's downfall...

Leblanc agreed his airline's prices were low but said every time Jetsgo tried to raise fares, it was undercut by WestJet.

(That's from today's Edmonton Journal.)

As a note, at one point Westjet was offering tickets from Toronto to anywhere they flew for 20.05$. Because that's the type of airfare that keeps airlines in business. But it's all Westjet's fault.




In the same article:
Leblanc did acknowledge in the interview, however that he has to "bear the whole blame" for Jetsgo's demise. "I'm the guy where the buck stops and I accept that."

However, he goes on to blame the whole thing on:
1. the creditors that wanted their money, being that Jetsgo was rather severly in debt.
2. Nav Canada, a specific creditor, for saying Jetsgo had one month to get some sort of debt repayment in place.
3. Evil Evil Westjet.

He specifically says that Nav Canada was holding a metaphoric gun to his head. By telling him to pay his bills.

Uh-huh.



This is my favorite part.

In an effort to excuse his company taking people's money right up until 1 hour before a planned company shut down (which involved flying every plane they could to Montreal, so they'd be safe from creditors), LeBlanc claimed that his pilots would have been sad and worried, a situation that would make it unsafe for them to be flying, had they heard that the website was not taking bookings. As well, some of his employees may have refused to come to work. So, in taking all that money, he was thinking of the safety of Canadians.

Uh-huh.



All ex-employees of Jetsgo can get their paycheques... if they return everything that Jetsgo ever owned (pages, ID tags, parking passes, everything) -- and come to Montreal to get it.


Although I feel terrible for the people who are unemployed and those who were stranded, I gotta say, this couldn't have happened to a more deserving company. I won't go into my tale of how much Jetsgo sucked. I'll let Jetsgosucks.com fill anyone in who cares.