Zoom Airlines grounds planes and files for bankruptcy

In addition, Zoom is reported to have owed the Western Canadian city's airport authority C$400,000 (207,730 pounds) in landing fees.

Zoom advised those who have paid for future reservations to contact their credit card companies to apply for refunds.

It also said it would advertise details of other carriers that fly the same or similar routes.

Surging fuel prices have led several airlines to seek legal shelter from creditors as their costs have soared. Established players, meanwhile, have been forced to chop staff, reduce capacity and impose new fees to deal with the burden.

In addition, numerous Canadian start-up carriers have failed while trying to undercut big carriers like Air Canada and WestJet Airlines on fares.

In the last eight years, such airlines as Canada 3000, Jetsgo, CanJet and Harmony Airways have all been forced to scrap scheduled service.

Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice said in Inuvik, Northwest Territories that he had yet to be briefed on Zoom's collapse, but acknowledged the tough times in the sector.

"I have had discussions with representatives of both Air Canada and WestJet about fuel costs and what that is doing to the industry," Prentice said.

"If we find passengers in difficult circumstances, everybody is going to have to work together to deal with that."

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones. Additional reporting by Allan Dowd in Inuvik and Wojtek Dabrowski in Toronto; Editing by Ted Kerr).