cedric

Ouch. Somewhat of a harsh analysis. Jetsgo's model has certainly proved to be successful in Europe, so why would you essentially tell it's customers to f*** off? Royal certainly did NOT cause the demise of CMM. The combination of a weakening economy, 9/11 (remember CMM was an airline focussing on leisure customers only), and poor management did.

Luubert

I just tried the website but it's down as well. Yay! ^

cedric

I have a feeling that it had more to do with the Transport Canada investigation than an immediate lack of funds. If there were immediate TC concerns, then it was probably a good idea on the part of the airline to voluntarily suspend operations. Remember, Westjet didn't volunteer.

If they are indeed able to work their way through CCAA and restart, they probably would have lost a lot more consumer confidence if they were petitioned out of the skies than if they did it themselves.

YOWkid

Yeah, that's weird the website has been pulled -- at least provide a "FT was right, we were going belly up soon..." message.

YOWkid

Maybe. If this was the case, then they should have approached the other airlines to ask for help in providing their PAX with transport.

No one will trust that smily face (they will have to pay people to fly) and Leblanc is definitely on Canada's most hated list...

cedric

The media coverage of this is just driving me bananas. It's a major focus of Canada AM this morning, and for lack of any other drama they're interviewing stranded passengers.

Couple "Yeah, we rebooked on Air Canada in two days to go to Orlando." ...other random questions...
Announcer: "Well, I hope you get a vacation out of this somehow"

There was also someone complaining about not getting any food.

Oh, and the announcers made some comments about not providing enough notice to passengers. Would have been nice if the late feeds of CTV News had mentioned it. I had watched the first 15 minutes of the Mountain feed, broadcast a full hour after the announcement, and nothing was said.

cedric

That's what everyone said after Christmas. And again after the YYC incident. Seems to me people were still booking with them.

Q Shoe Guy

Nothing like a good shake-out! Thank goodness it didn't happen during the summer peak! Hopefully the remaining Canadian airlines can concentrate on making a profit for their employees and shareholders (which would be the best news to come out of this debacle).

Shareholder

Just watching the minister of transport on NEWSWORLD. The dingbat shows just how out of touch he and his officials are. He's telling everyone that those who bought their tickets through TAs in Ontario and Quebec are covered by the industry's insurance program. But the whole point of JetsGo's business model was to sell 99.9% of its tickets over its own internet site, so the ball is in the court of the credit card issuers who will take most of the hit.

Shareholder

While the summer is a peak travel season, this is the third busiest period after Christmas/New Years and Thanksgiving Weekend, as most Canadians take their winter vacations to coincide with school breaks. Though most universities do their reading weeks in February, many do March and most all primary and secondary schools use this month as their week off. The summer travel period is spread over three or four months, while winter vacations are compressed into just two.

17,000 stranded passengers are what minister is saying. That's 170 MD90 flights. And that doesn't count those who had yet to start their trips over the coming days... A lot of seats to cover off.

speaker

To echo Cedric's comment, I too am appalled at the lack of rigour in CTV's coverage...

The reporter went on about Jetsgo's demise being caused by flying "old planes, MD-83s" . Perhaps she should've been introduced to NW 33-year-old DC-9s or inversely, PIA's hiccups with their spanking new 777 . AFAIK JetBlue is one of the few airlines that started operating with new planes from the get-go. I'm also surprised (but then not too much) that she didn't bring up the fact that SG had a hub..and it was YYZ, and that this of course could've had no bearing on the failure of SG . And this "travel analyst" referring to Jetsgo as a "charter airline"

That being said I do feel sorry for the passengers, because lets face it, most of them do not follow the airline industry like we do and weren't privy to Jetsgo's erratic market expansions and contractions. Besides, if they have ever flown Southwest before, they know that 19$ LAX-LAS fares, or 99$ system-wide fares do exist and the company does fly them to their destination.

I wonder, however, if this is going to push more travellers to go back to booking at a TA's in order to get more financial protection, as this might shake the confidence of occasional flyers to book directly with carriers.

Shareholder

The European market is about 10x that of the Canadian market and distances of route sectors much shorter, thus permitting higher aircraft utilization. Also operating in an overall high fare/high regulated environment. Very different circumstances have permitted Ryanair and the others to thrive. [Also a lower passenger expectation, as the Ryanairs of the world were taking passengers who for the most part had flown the myriad of charter and package tour operators, not the major airlines.]

9.11 really only affected transborder travel and not domestic Canadian, which was the environment C2K was operating in. Most of its overseas business was consolidators and groups that was not affected in the immediate aftermath, though losing a week of flying affected the financials of all airlines. [And of course, the US government compensated their airlines handily while Ottawa never came through with much more than a token financial package.] True, that airline did expand and was trying to enter the business market with a front cabin product, but it purchased ROYAL based on false financials and a claim that LeBlanc was making money on the YYZ-YUL-YOW triangle, which it proved was not the case. The matter was never followed up in court because the owners of C3K knew LeBlanc had no money they could get at, and they'd only be fattening the pockets of lawyers. The scoundrel got off scott-free to suck money out of another group of gullible consumers.

Reporters were going after the minister a few minutes ago, blaming it on Transport Canada's new safety notice issued yesterday afternoon, but this has been in the works for a few days. I am sure the fuel companies were applying the screws to be paid in advance, and JetsGo could not handle that, the overall rising fuel price, and the high burn rate it now had to endure by flying inefficient burning aircraft at even less efficient altitudes based on last week's safety order.

B1

I heard on the radio of an email from an SG captain. He only found out that he was out of a job by listening to the radio. He'd moved to YYZ with his family and bought a house. Pilots had to put up a personal $30,000 bond that is now held by Jetsnogo. It's one thing to miss a flight, it's another to be so totally screwed. I also heard that Transport Canada was about to put SG on short notice for maintenance and operations deficits. It did seem that SG lacked credibility. The best news is that in SGs lifespan there were no crashes and no lives lost and no fuel-free landings in Gimli or the Azores.

taupo

Is it held by Jetsgo, or was it put "In Trust" with a law firm or such?

ChrisA330

Just as an FYI for anyone who is holding tickets for future SG flights.

Not sure about other Banks, but BMO M/C will process a chargeback for the ticket amount only after the departure date.

Customers must provide original tickets or copies of e-ticket along with a letter by registered mail.