The company is also offering fixed prices. A one-way ticket from Saint John to Halifax, for example, is listed at $159, plus tax and fees.

"If you book for tomorrow morning, or if you book for two weeks from now, the price is the same," Hasson said, noting East Coast Airways' prices will be - on average - $700 cheaper for a roundtrip ticket than Air Canada.

Creditors chase businessman behind Maritime airline
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 | 9:42 AM AT Comments26Recommend30CBC News
East Coast Airways is based in Halifax. Service is set to start next week. (CBC)
A businessman behind a new airline in the Maritimes has a messy financial history in the United States.

East Coast Airways is set to launch service to five communities in the Maritime provinces on Nov. 1. The airline is based in Halifax, and will fly to Charlottetown, Yarmouth and Sydney in Nova Scotia, and Saint John, N.B.

Angry creditors in the U.S. say Jason Hasson, president of operations, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars and they've been unable to track him down.

Greg Crider, lawyer for Ameriana Bank in Indiana, said the bank loaned a company called Vertical Velocity Helicopters nearly $600,000 to buy a helicopter in 2006. Owner Hasson and his wife, Tina Simpkins, were named as guarantors.

Crider said loan payments stopped in the fall of 2008. The bank sued to get its money back, but there was a problem.

"The address given in Noblesville for Vertical Velocity Helicopters to the state of Indiana Corporations Division, when we attempted to serve that address, we were told 'moved with no forwarding.' And we had the same results for Jay Hasson and Tina Simpkins," Crider told CBC News.

The bank seized a partially dismantled helicopter. The aircraft was sitting in mechanic Patric Wells's shop in Ohio.

Wells said Hasson disappeared, owing him $90,000.

"He lied to me on numerous occasions about payments, about his plan, about many different things. Including, 'I'm sending you a cheque,' and it never showed up. And, 'well I sent you that, it must have got lost in the mail, I'll send you another one,'" said Wells.

Companies in Minnesota and Texas say Vertical Velocity owes them about $125,000.

Hasson told CBC News he sold all of his U.S. helicopter businesses around 2003, and that this is all a misunderstanding.

"I'm finding it, as the person you're talking to, very confusing. Because I have documentation of all the sales we made with the company," said Hasson.

Crider said he has contacted a lawyer in Halifax to see if he can recover more than $300,000.

Spinner wrote:CBC reports tonight that they are booking people on other flights because their startup is delayed. (no OC)

"There is a requirement in the agreement for a security deposit. Certainly all the discussions that we have had with the airline to date, we expect them to sign that agreement in the next few days to a week if their plans to start are still as scheduled."

Newson said he's heard some of the start dates may be delayed by about a week. He expects airline representatives will be in Charlottetown next week to finalize the agreement

Unpaid loan won’t affect N.S. airline — official

By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Wed, Oct 27 - 4:53 AM

The new operations president of East Coast Airways says his past business liabilities won’t affect the airline’s efforts to start a regional service in Halifax.

"This has no impact on ECA," Jay Hasson said in an interview on Tuesday. "They’re two separate entities."

Hasson confirmed that he and his wife, Tina Simpkin, a CTV Halifax meteorologist, are guarantors of a $600,000 loan from Ameriana Bank in New Castle, Ind., to Vertical Velocity Helicopters, an Indiana company he once owned.

Ameriana Bank sued Hasson and Simpkin to get its money back but had trouble finding the couple, bank lawyer Greg Crider told CBC Halifax. Crider couldn’t be reached Tuesday for comment on the details of the loan default.

Hasson said the loan default may have arisen from a mistake in failing to remove the couple’s names from company documents when they sold the helicopter business.

"We’re finding out what we need to do to rectify this," Hasson said. "At the end of the day, I am responsible to do whatever is necessary to make this right."

Kate Marshall, a Halifax lawyer representing Crider, said Tuesday that Hasson has not contacted the bank’s lawyer about the loan default.

Hasson said he was stunned by suggestions that creditors couldn’t find him and his wife, noting that they both have relatively high public profiles.

Hasson is an airline employee and does not own East Coast Airways, which is a subsidiary of Integra Air Inc. of Lethbridge, Alta.

Prior to this month’s airline launch, which received substantial media attention, Hasson was in the news for pitching a hovercraft service between Halifax and Bedford to regional council last year.

On Nov. 1, East Coast plans to begin scheduled flights between Halifax, Yarmouth, Sydney, Saint John, N.B., and Charlottetown.

However, Integra needs to amend its air operator certificate with Transport Canada to offer flights under the East Coast Airways banner in Atlantic Canada.

The required documentation was filed with the federal department last week, Hasson said.

"We’re still taking bookings. We’re looking forward to Nov. 1."

Transport Canada spokeswoman Melanie Orlowski said Tuesday her department hasn’t received the documentation required from Integra to consider a certificate amendment.

Integra president Brent Gateman couldn’t be reached for comment.

Rippen wrote:You know what is hilarious about this? Sydney is now welcoming the competition? Really? Two years ago the airport manager refused to let AG land because they didn't want a 19 PAX airplane, how about Sunwing? Anyone remember them refusing to let SWG fly in there? SWG serviced YQY for how many years in the summers, before WJ & AC decided to service. WTF? WJ & AC announces they'll start flights to YQY and SWG gets turfed....how's that for loyalty.