Yesterday I shared the crazy story of how a National Airlines 757 was essentially being impounded at St. John's Airport, in Canada. National Airlines is an Orlando based charter airline. Since early this year they have operated a once weekly flight between Orlando and St. John's, which is one of their few scheduled flights. Apparently…
Continue reading: $182K Later, Plane Allowed To Take Off From St. John’s Airport
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
At least they didn't end like PeoplExpress. A delivery truck and thousands of dollars of unpaid fees resulted in them being evicted.
They kept saying they were hoping to restart operations, until finally I posted on their page to tell everyone PeoplExpress was involuntarily filed for bankruptcy months ago. Cue them deleting that and shutting their page down 🙂
I'll be sure to note National for a future inquiry.
The airport did what it had to do to get paid - good to see. It's also not the first time something like this has happened in Canada - I think it might have been the now defunct JetsGo Canadian airline where a plane was actually stormed by lawyers and bailiffs at the gate and seized on behalf of creditors. If that plane in St. John's had ever been cleared for takeoff the airline could have discontinued the service immediately and welched on it's debt. And no doubt the airline execs would have still managed to escape with their personal bonuses etc. No sympathy from me for that airline. I feel semi-bad for the passengers who got caught in the middle. Not completely though, because they probably paid lower fares than a major airline charges. Sometimes a good deal isn't really so good...
Good on the Airport, Why should an airline get away with never paying.
Makes me sick, I would love to wonder into my local store each week and take as much food as possible and just walk out and say I will pay next time, but I don't get to do that, so why should airlines get away with not paying bills.
I have no sympathy for the airline and its their own fault.
This sort of thing happens all the time, especially as airlines are teetering on the edge of serious financial problems. In fact, when they are thinking about winding down operations, one of the biggest concerns they have is their aircraft getting impounded in some far away location as a result of unpaid landing fees (or other fees). So while this is an interesting story, it is far from unique.
Did St. John’s airport wait for the check to clear before releasing the plane?
I heard that pilots carry several tens of thousands of dollars in cash on international routes, in case they get diverted and have to buy fuel.
A good start would have been seizing that.