Bankruptcy of Lynx Air: two rich Quebecers lost their bet to create a very low-cost carrier

Two wealthy Quebecers, Mitch Garber and Stephen Bronfman, are major shareholders in Lynx Air, which abruptly ceased operations on Sunday, leaving thousands of travelers in the lurch.

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Stepworth Holdings, which is owned by Stephen Bronfman, son of billionaire Charles Bronfman, owns an 11.5% stake in Lynx Air Holdings, the ultra-low-cost carrier’s parent company, which is headquartered in Alberta.

Stephenson Management, which is owned by businessman Mitch Garber and his wife, tax attorney Anne-Marie Boucher, also owns an 11.5% stake in Lynx Air Holdings.

Stepworth and Stephenson helped found Lynx’s predecessor company, Enerjet, in 2018. The amounts the two firms invested there have never been made public.

Present on the Lynx board

M^e Boucher served on the Lynx board of directors from December 2018 to December 2023.

For his part, Mr. Bronfman was represented on the Lynx board by Frédéric Martel, who served there from September 2021 to December 2023. Mr. Martel was then head of investments at Claridge, the Bronfman family holding company. Since January, he has been CEO of the Montreal firm.

Lynx took shelter from its creditors last Thursday. It is drowning in nearly $600 million in debt while its assets are worth only $429 million (including nine Boeing 737 MAX aircraft leases valued at $345 million).

• Listen to the interview with Alexa Liendo, Lynx Air customer on Richard Martineau’s show via QUB :

The airline also owes more than $25 million to the Canada Revenue Agency for missed GST payments related to the importation of planes.

It also owes more than $1.6 million to Aéroports de Montréal and more than $2.4 million to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Lynx’s largest creditor (and shareholder) was the American firm Indigo, which controls the American carrier Frontier Airlines. The Alberta company owed him more than $90 million.

He cancels his trip to Vancouver

Clifton Augustin is one of Lynx’s clients who find themselves desperate. He was due to leave for Vancouver on Monday with his family. He paid about $350 for three round-trip tickets.

Lynx first suggested that she request a refund from her credit card company. Subsequently, the online agency he booked with, FlightHub, promised to reimburse him directly.

But as he has not yet received his money, Mr. Augustin preferred to cancel his trip. He looked for tickets with other carriers, but the total price exceeded $2,000.

“It was one of the first times I bought tickets with a company I was less familiar with. It’s definitely a strange first experience,” he says.

Lynx notably cited rising costs, high fuel prices and the “difficult” economic context to explain its collapse.

“Despite substantial growth, continued operational improvements, expense reductions and efforts to explore a sale of the business or merger, the challenges have become too great for us to overcome,” the company said in a press release last week.