ATA may get 2nd bid for subsidiary
Georgia investor aims to continue Chicago Express' in-state service
By Ted Evanoff
[email protected]
February 11, 2005
ATA Airlines is about to get its second purchase offer for Chicago Express two weeks after bankrupt ATA announced it would shut down the commuter line and end service to Indiana cities.
Robert Riddell, a retired Delta Airlines pilot in Georgia, said he has lined up investors, intends to make a purchase offer for the small airline and would continue flights between Indianapolis and four other Indiana cities.
"We are very, very interested," Riddell, president of AvJets Aviation Services, a charter business in Covington, Ga., told The Indianapolis Star on Thursday. "We feel real good that the time is right for us to make this deal."
A bankruptcy court in Indianapolis is scheduled Monday to consider ATA Holdings Corp.'s request to name Compass Advisers LLP of New York as the investment banker handling the prospective sale of the commuter line.
Turning the deal over to an investment banker could open the way for a formal sale leading to flights continuing from Indianapolis to Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary and South Bend.
Chicago Express had launched the in-state flights Jan. 11 as a condition for a $15.5 million bailout loan made to ATA by the state of Indiana and city of Indianapolis.
It was the first regular air service between Indiana's largest cities in nearly a decade. ATA repaid the loan in December, however, and within weeks announced it would end in-state service and shut down the commuter line by March 28 as a cost-cutting move in bankruptcy.
Hiring an investment banker marks a course change for ATA Holdings, the Indianapolis-based owner of 6,900-employee ATA Airlines and 600- employee Chicago Express.
The parent firm bought Chicago Express in 1999 for $1.9 million for an ill-timed expansion centered at Chicago Midway that eventually helped bankrupt ATA.
Rather than close the 17- airplane commuter line, ATA Holdings agreed to turn to an investment banker after Boston investor Jack E. Robinson pushed last month for the sale of Chicago Express.
Robinson's NatTel LLC of Stamford, Conn., has revised an original $37,700 offer down to $25,000 plus terms that agree not to press ATA Airlines for $14 million owed Chicago Express, said NatTel attorney Aaron Hammer of the Freeborn & Peters law firm in Chicago.
The original $37,700 was derived from an estimate of the legal fees ATA would run up transferring ownership of the Chicago-based airline to NatTel.
Robinson scheduled a meeting for 12:30 p.m. today at Indianapolis International Airport to describe his plans for Chicago Express. Airport officials from Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary and South Bend have been invited.
Riddell said he has not looked at length into Chicago Express, but he said he most likely would continue the line's new Indiana routes as well as flights to Chicago Midway from Indianapolis and Midwest cities.
Call Star reporter Ted Evanoff at (317) 444-6019.
Georgia investor aims to continue Chicago Express' in-state service
By Ted Evanoff
[email protected]
February 11, 2005
ATA Airlines is about to get its second purchase offer for Chicago Express two weeks after bankrupt ATA announced it would shut down the commuter line and end service to Indiana cities.
Robert Riddell, a retired Delta Airlines pilot in Georgia, said he has lined up investors, intends to make a purchase offer for the small airline and would continue flights between Indianapolis and four other Indiana cities.
"We are very, very interested," Riddell, president of AvJets Aviation Services, a charter business in Covington, Ga., told The Indianapolis Star on Thursday. "We feel real good that the time is right for us to make this deal."
A bankruptcy court in Indianapolis is scheduled Monday to consider ATA Holdings Corp.'s request to name Compass Advisers LLP of New York as the investment banker handling the prospective sale of the commuter line.
Turning the deal over to an investment banker could open the way for a formal sale leading to flights continuing from Indianapolis to Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary and South Bend.
Chicago Express had launched the in-state flights Jan. 11 as a condition for a $15.5 million bailout loan made to ATA by the state of Indiana and city of Indianapolis.
It was the first regular air service between Indiana's largest cities in nearly a decade. ATA repaid the loan in December, however, and within weeks announced it would end in-state service and shut down the commuter line by March 28 as a cost-cutting move in bankruptcy.
Hiring an investment banker marks a course change for ATA Holdings, the Indianapolis-based owner of 6,900-employee ATA Airlines and 600- employee Chicago Express.
The parent firm bought Chicago Express in 1999 for $1.9 million for an ill-timed expansion centered at Chicago Midway that eventually helped bankrupt ATA.
Rather than close the 17- airplane commuter line, ATA Holdings agreed to turn to an investment banker after Boston investor Jack E. Robinson pushed last month for the sale of Chicago Express.
Robinson's NatTel LLC of Stamford, Conn., has revised an original $37,700 offer down to $25,000 plus terms that agree not to press ATA Airlines for $14 million owed Chicago Express, said NatTel attorney Aaron Hammer of the Freeborn & Peters law firm in Chicago.
The original $37,700 was derived from an estimate of the legal fees ATA would run up transferring ownership of the Chicago-based airline to NatTel.
Robinson scheduled a meeting for 12:30 p.m. today at Indianapolis International Airport to describe his plans for Chicago Express. Airport officials from Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary and South Bend have been invited.
Riddell said he has not looked at length into Chicago Express, but he said he most likely would continue the line's new Indiana routes as well as flights to Chicago Midway from Indianapolis and Midwest cities.
Call Star reporter Ted Evanoff at (317) 444-6019.
