From Cockpit To Hardware Aisle

Ron Tessier paid defunct Canadian airline Jetsgo $30,000 to be trained to fly its planes. With $29,000 still owing on the loan he took out, Tessier, a pilot for 18 years, is heading home to Sudbury, Ont., and to a possible job at the local Home Depot to pay off the debt, Tessier told the Toronto Globe and Mail. Jetsgo demanded the $30,000 payments up front from all its pilots as a repayable (over two years) “loyalty bond” to prevent them from jumping to another airline after they were qualified. However, it was Jetsgo that pulled the pin on the pilots and other employees by declaring bankruptcy last week. Newer pilots, like Tessier, have virtually no chance of recovering their bonds. “It’s absolutely gone. It’s going to bankrupt a lot of people,” Tessier said. Meanwhile some passengers and employees are trying to get back what they can by auctioning off newly “rare “Jetsgo memorabilia on eBay. The online clearinghouse listed 89 items ranging from boarding passes for a penny to headphones (used only once) to a flight attendant’s uniform for $68. Most of the vendors are pitching the items as collectors’ items, including a “rare” mouse pad handed out free at the airline’s launch. And some claim they’re finding buyers. Amateur photographer Ryan Morgan snapped photos of the airline’s grounded planes and told the Toronto Globe and Mail there has “been a lot of interest.”