Jetsgo insisted that Ron Tessier pay a $30,000 loyalty bond to fly its planes.
The grounded pilot, who yesterday lined up with the rest of his former co-workers to collect his final paycheque, was unsure whether he would ever see that bond money again.
"That is one of the real kickers about it. It's absolutely gone," he said. "It's going to bankrupt a lot of people."
The upstart airline went into bankruptcy protection last week, surprising its employees and stranding approximately 17,000 passengers during March break, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Yesterday more than 1,350 former Jetsgo workers gathered at Pearson International Airport in Toronto and Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to pick up their last paycheques. Workers had to return uniforms, cellphones, pagers, and parking and security passes in order to collect.
Pilots, however, did not get any word about the status of the cash that the company owed them.
Jetsgo made pilots pay a $30,000 loyalty bond up front for their training. The cash was then returned over a two-year period: The first six months was for interest payments, the last 18 for the principal.
"It was up to the pilots to come up with it," Mr. Tessier said. "[Jetsgo]didn't do anything. We just simply handed them a cheque.
"Can we complain? Well, we entered into an agreement that we'd get it paid back."
It was the company's way of retaining pilots after training, said a pilot who identified himself as Kevin. Other airlines have provided free training, only to have pilots jump to a different job, he said.
"The public doesn't understand what the bonds are about," he said. "It's pretty common in the industry. But [the $30,000 is]what stood apart. The size of the bond was huge."
Mr. Tessier still owes his bank about $29,000. He hopes that after 18 years as a pilot, he will be able to join his family in Sudbury, find a job at Home Depot and pay off the loan.
Another pilot, a 31-year-old who only identified himself as Bill, owes the bank about $28,000 and has no idea how he is going to pay it off. Bill moved from Calgary to take the job in Toronto after paying the loyalty bond, and he wasn't paid during training.
"I didn't see a paycheque for three months," he said.
Airline analyst Joseph D'Cruz told CTV.ca that money paid by pilots went into the Jetsgo bank account and they have no recourse to recoup those funds.
Captain Kent Wilson, president of the Air Canada Pilot Association, said the supply of Canadian pilots "outstrips the demand."
There will be more pilots out there in the short term, but that will balance out when older pilots begin to retire and others need to be replaced.