I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

From this morning's National Post (registration required, so I'll magnamis ... magnoius ... magnanim ... oh, screw it, I'll do y'all a favour and type in the juicier bits), "Leblanc not ready to give up on airlines":

Despite drawing the ire of Canadians, thousands of whom were stranded in airports across the country, the founder and president of failed airline Jetsgo is not ruling out a future in the airline business...

When the former pilot was pressed on the subject, he conceded if the right opportunity presented itself, he would "consider" launching another low-cost airline, saying he still believes there's room for a Jetsgo-type operation in Canada.

So that would be try number ... five, then. In Leblanc's defense, he may have a point. After all, he can use as seed money the ticket revenues of the 17,000 travellers he hung out to dry when he yanked Jetsgo out from under them. I can see it now: "And your collateral, Mr. Leblanc? Ooooh ... and they're all small bills? Fine, then." But there's a weirder side to this story that I'm curious about.

From a March 15 Mope and Wail article, we have:

A financially imperilled Jetsgo Corp. sent the bulk of its fleet of 15 Fokker 100s to Quebec City last Thursday night in a calculated effort to protect its prized assets from creditors.

Jetsgo pilots had been told to refuel and fly to Quebec City for "air worthiness" checks on parts, including engine thrust reversers, The Globe and Mail has learned. A Transport Canada official said no maintenance checks were ordered and airport and aircraft industry officials added that Jetsgo ultimately wanted to ensure an orderly return of its company-owned aircraft.

Four hours before Montreal-based Jetsgo announced its shutdown at around midnight Thursday, the discount carrier started transferring the Fokkers to its Quebec City hangar, keeping the planes away from creditors, such as authorities at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Now, beyond the obvious conclusion that this was clearly a calculated con job on the part of Leblanc, one has to ask, why the hell didn't anyone notice this abrupt departure from routine? You don't just reroute the majority of your fleet without someone perhaps taking notice. Ground crew? Flight attendants? Air traffic controllers, perhaps? "Um ... boss, you might want to take a look at all these flight plans for this evening ... I mean, what the fuck??"

Perhaps the pilots might have suspected something was up:

Some of Jetsgo's Toronto-based pilots stayed overnight in Quebec City and then rode a Via train back to their Ontario home base, said one Jetsgo pilot familiar with the situation.

"The pilots were kept in the dark. They would not have flown the planes back to Quebec City if they knew the company was being shut down," one pilot said.

Yeah, and there'd be, like, nothing to make them a bit suspicious: "Really, Louis? Hey, I'm flying to Quebec City tonight, too. And so is John. And Mark. Don't that beat all, eh?"

So, at the same time one is feeling sorry for all of Jetsgo's employees, one can also ask, did not one of them notice anything a bit unusual in the day or two leading up to this? Nothing? And we were counting on all of them to be smart enough to get us where we were going safely? Suddenly, air travel has lost a little of its appeal.