YourPilotFriend
YourPilotFriend
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Bankruptcy Judge Extends NWA Deadline
(AP) NEW YORK A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday granted a motion by Northwest Airlines Corp. to extend the deadline for the airline to exclusively file its reorganization plan, before creditors can submit alternate proposals.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper ruled that Northwest had made enough progress on its Chapter 11 restructuring plan to justify the extension of the deadline to Jan. 15. After that, creditors will have until March 16 to submit their responses.
The extension marks the second for the nation’s fourth-largest airline, which asked in January to have the deadline pushed back to July 13.
Attorneys for both Northwest and its creditors, which did not contest the motion, said they were optimistic that at least the bulk of the case could be resolved by the new deadline.
“Your honor, I believe that we have achieved a number of milestones,” Northwest attorney Mark Ellenberg said, adding that the airline has worked to resolve issues with its labor unions and restructured most of its aircraft fleet.
“I think we’ve made excellent progress but there’s still a lot to do.”
Also Thursday, Gropper wrote in a memorandum of law that he would grant Northwest’s motion to let it impose terms on its holdout flight attendants—but then said his order would be stayed for two weeks so they could keep negotiating.
Northwest has new agreements in place with all its major unions except the flight attendants, who rejected a tentative agreement on June 6 with 80 percent of the vote. Northwest then asked Gropper to give it permission to impose its own terms on them.
The ruling was a partial victory for Northwest. It gets to impose terms—after two more weeks of talks. If those talks fail, Gropper said Northwest could impose the agreement that flight attendants rejected—not the harsher offer Northwest made earlier in negotiations.
Still, Gropper wrote that talks had gone on nearly long enough.
“Unless real progress is made in the negotiations, however, any additional delay would be inappropriate, as it would fail to recognize the Debtors financial plight and their need to move their Chapter 11 cases toward a conclusion,” he wrote.
Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch had no immediate comment on the ruling. PFAA spokeswoman Karen Schultz did not immediately return a phone message.
Flight attendants have threatened a strike if the airline imposes terms—but they have agreed in court not to start one for at least 15 days after Northwest imposes terms. That would push the earliest possible strike date to the end of July or early August. Also, Northwest has said any strike would be illegal.
Flight attendants are the last major Northwest union without a new contract. But the contracts for the other major unions don’t take effect until they all do. In the meantime, they are operating under temporary concessions approved by Gropper.
The flight attendants ran an ad in Thursday’s Star Tribune of Minneapolis showing Northwest CEO Doug Steenland playing a violin, exhorting him to “Stop fiddling around” and reach a bargain. Ebenhoch had no comment on the ad.
The January deadline will mark 16 months in bankruptcy for the Eagan, Minn.-based airline, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 14.
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_180151556.html
(AP) NEW YORK A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday granted a motion by Northwest Airlines Corp. to extend the deadline for the airline to exclusively file its reorganization plan, before creditors can submit alternate proposals.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper ruled that Northwest had made enough progress on its Chapter 11 restructuring plan to justify the extension of the deadline to Jan. 15. After that, creditors will have until March 16 to submit their responses.
The extension marks the second for the nation’s fourth-largest airline, which asked in January to have the deadline pushed back to July 13.
Attorneys for both Northwest and its creditors, which did not contest the motion, said they were optimistic that at least the bulk of the case could be resolved by the new deadline.
“Your honor, I believe that we have achieved a number of milestones,” Northwest attorney Mark Ellenberg said, adding that the airline has worked to resolve issues with its labor unions and restructured most of its aircraft fleet.
“I think we’ve made excellent progress but there’s still a lot to do.”
Also Thursday, Gropper wrote in a memorandum of law that he would grant Northwest’s motion to let it impose terms on its holdout flight attendants—but then said his order would be stayed for two weeks so they could keep negotiating.
Northwest has new agreements in place with all its major unions except the flight attendants, who rejected a tentative agreement on June 6 with 80 percent of the vote. Northwest then asked Gropper to give it permission to impose its own terms on them.
The ruling was a partial victory for Northwest. It gets to impose terms—after two more weeks of talks. If those talks fail, Gropper said Northwest could impose the agreement that flight attendants rejected—not the harsher offer Northwest made earlier in negotiations.
Still, Gropper wrote that talks had gone on nearly long enough.
“Unless real progress is made in the negotiations, however, any additional delay would be inappropriate, as it would fail to recognize the Debtors financial plight and their need to move their Chapter 11 cases toward a conclusion,” he wrote.
Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch had no immediate comment on the ruling. PFAA spokeswoman Karen Schultz did not immediately return a phone message.
Flight attendants have threatened a strike if the airline imposes terms—but they have agreed in court not to start one for at least 15 days after Northwest imposes terms. That would push the earliest possible strike date to the end of July or early August. Also, Northwest has said any strike would be illegal.
Flight attendants are the last major Northwest union without a new contract. But the contracts for the other major unions don’t take effect until they all do. In the meantime, they are operating under temporary concessions approved by Gropper.
The flight attendants ran an ad in Thursday’s Star Tribune of Minneapolis showing Northwest CEO Doug Steenland playing a violin, exhorting him to “Stop fiddling around” and reach a bargain. Ebenhoch had no comment on the ad.
The January deadline will mark 16 months in bankruptcy for the Eagan, Minn.-based airline, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 14.
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_180151556.html
