Aloha Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

[mdanno808]

You're not the guy who stole my Honda Civic from Hau Bush are you?

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

You're not the guy who stole my Honda Civic from Hau Bush are you?

Just only borrowed for an hour or two...

 

[Dan Roman]

Here you guys go, just saw this on yahoo.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050224/lath157_1.html

Sounds like good news!
For what it's worth we at HAL are keeping are fingers crossed, we need you and we all have to many mutual friends to see anything dire happen.

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

For what it's worth we at HAL are keeping are fingers crossed, we need you and we all have to many mutual friends to see anything dire happen.

Most of the guys at the HAL group wouldn't have pissed on AQ folks if they were on fire 3 years ago. So what's changed other than the obvious?

 

[RJP]

Gotta love this company...

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - February 25, 2005
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/21/daily54.html

LATEST NEWS

7:35 PM HST Thursday

Aloha Air finds equity investor


In an important step toward emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Aloha Airlines has reached agreement in principal with a private equity investment group to provide the airline with funding up to $90 million.

The firm is MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners II LP, whose parent firm has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Founded by David Matlin and Mark Patterson, the firm has more than $3 billion under management and offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. The Partners II fund has $150 million to be drawn down over three years. The funds pursue a global strategy of gaining corporate control of distressed companies.

"This agreement with MatlinPatterson takes Aloha Airlines to the threshold of exiting bankruptcy in record time," Aloha CEO David Banmiller said Thursday night.

The deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court and other conditions. Aloha filed a motion Thursday requesting an expedited hearing on this.

"Aloha is fortunate," Banmiller said, "to have attracted a significant commitment from such a highly regarded private equity investment firm."

MatlinPatterson is the third largest investor in MCI, now the subject of a takeover bid by Verizon Communications and a rival bid by Qwest, according to Computer Business Review.

It also proposes to become the principal investor in financially-distressed Ormet Corp. of Wheeling, W. Va., one of the nation's leading producers of aluminum, according to the Times Leader of Martin's Ferry, Ohio.

It is in the process of selling back its stake in Minneapolis-based NRG Energy, which recently emerged from Chapter 11.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

 

[Dan Roman]

Hugh,

Your talking about the merger.
The Hawaiian folks didn't want to merge is all. It was nothing personal.
The perception was that the merger really didn't make sense from a business point of view. It would have opened the door for another inter-island carrier to come in and compete and it certainly wasn't fair to call it a "merger of equals" At the time, HAL had $100 million in cash and a fleet of 767's and 717's. AQ had less than $10 million cash and the entire fleet would have to be replaced to fit the 2 airlines together. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that was the perception, it wasn't personal, just business.

 

[AQ PILOT]

Hi again Dan!

I disagree with you big time on your assessment. Remember the meeting with AQ,, HAL, and Greg B? Couple of HAL people stood up and said specifically that they didn't feel that the people at AQ had 'suffered enough'? That is PURELY personal.

You and I have talked before, so you know where I'm coming from, but your fleet of 767's and 717's was what helped rush you guys straight into bankruptcy. The $100 Million cash didn't help keep you out (then again, you did have Adams running away with a quarter of it) of bk for long. That said, our $10 Million sure seemed to last forever....but inevitably we too ended up right along side you guys in bk. We both know management was what put us both where we are today!

My feelings are simple. Had AQ and HAL merged, there would have been some training incidents for sure....our -200's would have gone bye bye and been replaced by a few more 717's. Your 76's would have gone long haul like they should be doing anyhow, we would have probably picked up some 75's, and our little old -700's could have been left alone going to neat little places like Orange County. The combined company would have made a KILLING. Hands down with GB in charge we would have actually become a real airline.

So, again, I think there was a lot of personal stuff that came out during the merger deal. I think exactly zero of it mattered in the long run. Adams was always ready to do exactly what he did. The guy is always a step or two ahead of the SEC.

Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed for us. We need all the help we can get. We all pulled for you guys during the ups and downs over there and we hope you'll continue to do the same for us. Great job on getting Gutbomb to comeback to the table and give you guys a real contract by the way! That 1113 dealio was a frickin' joke. Great job! Now hurry up and show us the way out of bankruptcy...

 

[English]

I'm really happy for all my friends at Aloha. Looks like the future is much brighter and the company will stay in business. 90 million is a good chunk of change.

 

[Dan Roman]

Aloha AQ Pilot(no pun intended)

We don't disagree as much as you think. I was just saying what the sentiment was. At the time I thought the combined airlines had a lot of potential, but I guess we'll never know. I remember thinking if Adam's wanted out perhaps this was our best alternative. Time seems to have proven he was willing to gamble with everyones career! We dodged a bullit no thanks to Adam's.
For the record, he was prosecuted (slap on the wrist?) for his abuse of the bankruptcy filing. At the time HAL was debt free with leases just a little to high (GB's words). Adam's abused the system by going C.11 with the airline, not the Hawaiian Holdings stock he owned. The airline never got below 25 mil in cash. Had he not taken the 25 mil out, Hawaiian never would have fallen below 50 mil in cash, before their return to strong profits. They had higher expenses in BK not lower, contrary to popular belief. They never stopped paying any of their obligations and the legal costs were about 2 mil a month. We had more money put into our retirement fund under chapter 11 than had been put in for quite a few years before. I also made a lot of extra money in profit sharing and defered compensation while under C11. IMHO it's the new airplanes that saved our okele along with very large technology expenditures. Most people give our current president (Mark Dunkerly) a lot of credit for keeping Hawaiian on track despite the very negative impact of dealing with the trustee. Operationaly, Hawaiian has never been better and they are now a solidly profitable airline.
By the way, the perception that we wanted you guys to suffer is just not true. I'm sure there is a few that feel that way as there are a few AQ pilots that feel that way about us. But you and I know that is not the majority on either side of the fence. I think that perception may have morphed out a comments by some HAL employees that felt we had made concessions and weathered through bankruptcy to get Hawaiian into the position it was at (new airplanes and well positioned for the future) and they didn't want to share! Whatever, I was looking forward to sharing the cockpit with you guys and see just what GB could do. But I'm fairly senior, so I have to sympathize with the junior guys who were concerned about losing a lot of seniority.

Hang in there, it has to be a good sign that people are willing to invest $90 million in you. Your going to hear all kinds of BS, but mark my words you'll survive. Aloha, just like Hawaiian has a strong marketable image for serving Hawaii, and that is worth a lot.

 

[RJP]

SWA/ATA doing the "Hula"

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - February 25, 2005
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/21/daily59.html


LATEST NEWS

6:29 AM HST Friday

ATA to add Hawaii service


ATA Airlines, which flies to Hawaii from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, has decided to undertake a significant ramp-up of service to Hawaii, this time from Phoenix.

The move could bring more discount fliers to Hawaii but offers a competitive challenge to Hawaiian Airlines, which currently is the only airline with daily service from Phoenix to Hawaii.

ATA, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year, recently entered into a strategic alliance with Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest discount carrier. Southwest doesn't have FAA authorization to fly to Hawaii, so ATA's service to the islands is attractive to Southwest. Just days ago the chief financial officer of Southwest was named CEO of ATA.


ATA's vice president of planning, who is aptly named Stan Hula, says ATA will launch Phoenix flights to Hawaii in April and more in June, until it, too, is flying here daily. It will serve both Honolulu and Kahului from Phoenix.

That isn't all. By June the airline says it will also have four flights a week to Kauai, three of them from Los Angeles and the fourth from San Francisco. Two more flights from Los Angeles will go to Kona. ATA already has daily flights from Los Angeles to Maui which actually start in Indianapolis, the carrier's headquarters hub.

Just as Southwest intends to use ATA to get people to Hawaii, its closest discount competitor America West already interchanges passengers with Hawaiian Airlines at both of its hubs, Phoenix and Las Vegas.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.