For many years, Flytrippers has been telling you that this airline is very suspicious. Canada Jetlines, a small airline many have never heard of, started by saying they were “launching soon” for a whopping 9 years. And after just 23 months in the skies, the 11-year saga will apparently end in a very fitting manner, by ceasing all operations and grounding its 4 aircraft after trying a dizzying array of business models.
As I told you many times, from my perspective as an aviation expert and former management consultant, their whole operation sounded terrible from the start (others even went so far as to say it looked like a scam just to sell stocks).
And we kept telling you it sounded terrible, even after I spoke to their then-CEO at an aviation event, which did nothing at all to reassure me. And even after former Québec Premier and Canada Deputy Prime Minister, Jean Charest, was announced as a member of their board of directors.
Here are the details of Canada Jetlines ceasing operations.
Canada Jetlines internal memo
On Monday, August 12th, Canada Jetlines announced that 4 executives, including the CEO, were resigning.
Not a great sign. Especially when many other leaders left the company in the past months.
Unsurprisingly, today an internal memo was leaked, and the airline announced to employees they were ceasing all operations soon.
The airline confirmed the news in the afternoon. Their operations have ceased effective immediately.
Impact of Canada Jetlines ceasing operations
Apart from the employees obviously, this news has an impact for others.
Since Canada Jetlines indeed always seemed more interested in selling stocks than operating flights, I’ll fittingly cover the impacts for both types of people affected:
- Stockholders
- Passengers
For stockholders, a lot of people are going to lose money. Well, more than they already had on paper.
The airline’s market capitalization was over 3 million dollars before opening this morning. Honestly, for anyone who has followed Jetlines even remotely closely since they announced their intentions to launch in 2013 (!!!), it’s wild that so many people sadly entrusted their hard-earned money to this company.
But it’s still unfortunate, even if this was just about the riskiest airline investment imaginable — and even airlines in general are often pretty volatile stocks.
(Remember that the best way to become a millionaire by launching an airline is… to be a billionaire and launch an airline!)
The stock was trading at $0.02 yesterday, but that was already down 96% from the high of $0.55 in 2021. That was reached when the airline had been “launching soon” for 8 years, less than a year before actually launching.
It’s been all downhill since.
Anyway, all travelers, like all Canadians, should invest in the stock market. But penny stocks are always very risky. Stick to index funds if you want a strategy that requires little effort and is effective. Picking individual stocks is not for everyone.
For passengers, to be very clear, this news affects just about no one.
Canada Jetlines had only 4 aircraft (Air Canada has 353, for comparison). It’s not even clear that they were actually operating regular flights these days, or just charter flights. Their business model and routes changed so often.
In fact, even if tickets were sold, even WestJet’s current cancelations we told you about last week (due to the major Calgary hailstorm) affect more travelers. Because that issue has taken 16 aircraft out of operation and WestJet’s 16 planes were almost certainly more full than Canada Jetlines’ 4 and were used a lot more efficiently (more flights per day), too.
But while WestJet owes you a rebooking or refund for its cancelations like all active airlines, Canada Jetlines will not give you anything at all, of course.
I still remember when people were surprised that Lynx Air offered nothing when they went out of business… they ceased operations; it literally says it in the term. Ceased. They won’t do anything; they’re gone. Over. Finished.
What to do when any airline ceases operations
Here’s a reminder of the basics for the rare cases when an airline you bought tickets from goes under:
- You can be reimbursed for your flights with a chargeback
- Communicate with the bank that issues the credit card used
It seems like every week, someone is in the news complaining an airline didn’t give them a hotel during an overnight delay. It’s so simple: always pay for your flight with a good credit card! Always!!! It’s one of the most basic and important flight tips. You’ll get free hotels and meals.
And the right to chargebacks.
That gives you your money back, but that obviously doesn’t get you where you wanted to go.
Hopefully, your flight was far out enough to give you time to find an alternative on competing airlines at a decent price. You can read our teaser with the basics of how to save on plane tickets and try each tip one by one, just like you should for all your flights.
Canada Jetlines history
I’ll quote one of my many articles about Canada Jetlines in the past, specifically from when they had been “launching soon” for just 6 years and had delayed the launch yet again but were still soliciting investments.
Jetlines tried really hard though. They’ve made countless attempts to secure financing, and no one can question the effort they put into selling stocks.
They had done so much in 6 years, except minor details like:
- Securing an aircraft
- Getting an air operator certificate
- Hiring pilots or flight attendants
- Selling tickets
Really trivial details for an airline, you know?
Honestly, I was very surprised they even launched, after 9 years of doing just about nothing. Think about that for a second: 9 years. That’s a long time to launch anything.
With just 4 aircraft, they never really grew in the almost 2 years since their September 2022 inaugural flight. They were actually mostly doing charter operations, not scheduled flights like an actual airline.
They tried domestic flights, then flights to the U.S., then to “sun” destinations… it was hard to follow.
All the while, they had literally no competitive edge. Not cheaper than others and not better than others. The worst market segment to be in, for any industry.
They weren’t cheaper. Jetlines wasn’t an ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC), so their prices were terrible. We barely ever spotted any deals on Jetlines in its 2 years of operation, despite the fact we spot literally dozens of flight deals every single day.
They weren’t better either. They weren’t a more premium airline that was worth choosing over others and they weren’t a bigger airline that had more flight frequencies to offer.
They really had nothing going for them.
So the fact Canada Jetlines is ceasing operations is just about the least surprising thing in Canadian aviation. The most surprising thing about this airline is that they made it to almost 2 years of operation and got so many people to invest in the airline.
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Summary
Canada Jetlines, a small airline with just 4 aircraft that never looked very credible, is ceasing operations. It’s definitely not surprising to anyone who has followed their 11-year saga, but it’s still unfortunate for those who had bought stocks or plane tickets.
What would you like to know about Canada Jetlines ceasing operations? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Jetlines airplane (photo credit: Jetlines)
