BlackBerry executives may be flying coach after jet selloff

When a company is failing, they usually check to see what luxuries the executives can live without once they’ve cut the workforce down. That’s what’s happening at BlackBerry. First, they laid off a large portion of their workforce. When that didn’t seem to be enough, they decided that they should part ways with some of their corporate jets.

Months before announcing a near $1 billion net operating loss and plans to eliminate 40 percent of its workforce, foundering smartphone pioneer BlackBerry bought a long-range private jet in which to ferry its executives around.

The second-hand Bombardier Global Express jet was delivered to BlackBerry in July, smack dab in the middle of the gruesome fiscal second quarter of which the company warned on Friday, one that forced it to sack 4,500 employees. It was purchased for an undisclosed sum, but aircraft like it typically command prices upward of $25 million.