Midway is now Mesa?!?!?

[Smiliner]

Looks like Mesa purchased the assest of Midway Airlines (RDU). Wonder what this does to the attempted ACA takeover.

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Mesa Air Wins Midway Assets at Auction
Wednesday December 10, 4:23 pm ET
By Emery P. Dalesio, Associated Press Writer
Mesa Air Group Wins Midway Airlines Assets at Forced Auction


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Mesa Air Group emerged Wednesday as the winning bidder for the assets of bankrupt Midway Airlines after its last-minute challenge to the sale of Midway's planes and operating certificate forced an auction.
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Officials with Mesa, based in Phoenix, Ariz., bid $9.15 million for Midway's certificate and eight jets.

Mesa was declared the winning bidder by bankruptcy trustee Joseph Callaway after the only previous bidder, Connecticut-based investment firm Wexford Capital, declined to increase its $8.6 million offer.

Federal bankruptcy Judge Thomas Small approved Mesa's bid later Wednesday. He denied an objection from an attorney for pilots' union, which argued that the buyer should honor their labor agreement.

The Mesa-owned carrier likely would hire heavily from Midway's former pilots, mechanics and flight attendants.

A Mesa spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the airline's plans for Midway's assets. Mesa could begin flying a carrier based at Raleigh-Durham International Airport as early as January, said Bob Ferguson, Midway's former chief executive.

The deal is subject to approval by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Transportation Department.

Midway struggled through bankruptcy for 26 months before Small ordered Oct. 30 that it sell its assets.

Wexford sought to use Midway's planes to start a new carrier named Ascent Airlines. Like Midway, Ascent was to be a commuter affiliate of US Airways.

Wexford owns Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines -- which provides commuter service for American, Delta and US Airways -- and has invested in Denver-based Frontier Airlines Inc. The company invests in bankrupt or distressed companies, and holds investments that range from deep-sea drilling rigs to satellite TV provider Echostar Communication.

Mesa Air flies 151 planes to 155 cities in North America. The company has about 4,000 employees and operates as Mesa Airlines in New Mexico and Texas and as a feeder airline for America West, US Airways, Frontier and Midwest Express.

Both bidders agreed to assume about $90 million in debt owed on the planes. The offers were also each conditioned on dropping Midway's labor deal with its pilots.

Pilots had contended a clause in their labor agreement requires that it be binding on any merged company or successor to Midway. The labor contract sets work rules, salaries and specifies that pilots should be rehired according to their seniority with Midway.

Midway gave up its fight to exit bankruptcy and decided to liquidate its assets when it was unable to agree to a list of concessions from its pilots.

 

[Homer Jay]

Good Lord... When will this end?????

 

[sleepy]

Let me see if I understand this. The Mesa pilots agreed to the worst contract in the Regional industry in order to get all of the various Mesa carriers under one contract. And now JO has bought and will operate another Regional carrier 9Midway) that will be non-union and operate outside of that very contract? Classic!

 

[Palerider957]

Yup, the Mesa pilot group can now enjoy the slide and outright desregard for their pathetic contract.

Enjoy........

 

[nimtz]

Officials with Mesa, based in Phoenix, Ariz., bid $9.15 million for Midway's certificate and eight jets.

Mesa was declared the winning bidder by bankruptcy trustee Joseph Callaway after the only previous bidder, Connecticut-based investment firm Wexford Capital, declined to increase its $8.6 million offer.

Is that 9.15 Million payable in zero-coupon bonds maturing in the year 2200.

 

[cl65200]

"Let me see if I understand this. The Mesa pilots agreed to the worst contract in the Regional industry in order to get all of the various Mesa carriers under one contract. And now JO has bought and will operate another Regional carrier 9Midway) that will be non-union and operate outside of that very contract? Classic!"


NO, you did not understand it.
You are not even close to getting it right.........

 

[pipejockey]

Surely no respectable airline pilot will go work for this new Mesa, at the substandard wages and workrules I'm sure they will be offered! They will take a stand and say NO!! They will not work for anything less than the old Midway pilots were earning.

 

[cl65200]

I know several J4J guyes that worked for Midway the last 6 months.
I can not remember the exact details of their complaint, about days off, insurance and other contract problems so I will not secound guess and lists "facts"( like most people here like to do....) Maybe some of them can enlighten us about the differences between Mesa and Midway.........

 

[sleepy]

"Let me see if I understand this. The Mesa pilots agreed to the worst contract in the Regional industry in order to get all of the various Mesa carriers under one contract. And now JO has bought and will operate another Regional carrier 9Midway) that will be non-union and operate outside of that very contract? Classic!"


NO, you did not understand it.
You are not even close to getting it right.........

Ok, then explain it to us, please.

 

[vc10]

This one is easy. Midway is a subsidiary of MESA. MESA contract unambiguously states that all airline subsidiaries of MESA must be operated under the MESA contract. Which in and of itself is a very good reason why MESA refused to take the Midway contract with Midway.

 

[Rottweiller]

Both bidders agreed to assume about $90 million in debt owed on the planes. The offers were also each conditioned on dropping Midway's labor deal with its pilots.

Pilots had contended a clause in their labor agreement requires that it be binding on any merged company or successor to Midway. The labor contract sets work rules, salaries and specifies that pilots should be rehired according to their seniority with Midway.

Midway gave up its fight to exit bankruptcy and decided to liquidate its assets when it was unable to agree to a list of concessions from its pilots.

Here's how it will go:
1. Condition of sale was to drop current pilot contract.
2.Therefore NO seniority at MESA apart from the bottom of list.
3. Suffer MESA work rules, contract and pay (no more Midway contract).
4. Midway cert will be handed back to FAA in a couple of months once the Midway pilots have had full use of the MESA KY supply.

Any of this $hit sound familiar???

 

[RUhiring?]

4. Midway cert will be handed back to FAA in a couple of months once the Midway pilots have had full use of the MESA KY supply.

I highly doubt this. JO just bought himself an airline that has an operating certificate for the A320, 737, and F100.

He won't be "giving" that away at all.

 

[upndsky]

It's been more than 2 years since Midway has flown the A-320 or the F-100, so I doubt that they are still listed on the certificate. The B-737 is probably off the certificate as well, since they were only flying RJs.

O probably saw an opportunity to pick up a bunch of jets quick and cheap while keeping a competitor from starting up a rival airline. As another poster wrote, the certificate will probably go away after a while.

But then again, stranger things have happened.

 

[Publishers]

Asset

Assets mean that he bought the things, not the company. He may not even have bought the name, although I assume he did.

The contract was with the company and JO did not buy the company.

 

[SmackYourPappy]

get informed

Sounds like what Mesa will do to ACA.

Crack smokers need not post while HIGH. you say you are a captain, but I find it hard to believe that you're judgement is so clouded. JO might attempt such, but you MUST realize that we are alive and kicking and it is not an ASSET SALE as was MDW.

Therefore, he is attempting a merger and/or a tender offer. In either case we have two active ALPA agreements in which both have SCOPE provisions governing integration. Please read the entire consent solicitation which Mesa has filed with the SEC. It states quite clearly the *difficulties* inherent in this proposal one of which is both companies respective pilots CBA's governing integrations. It even suggests that this might prevent the financial profits from fruition. JO has also stated that he intends to keep us separate- but history and the Allegheny-Mohawk merger provisions might have something to say about that.

Please do not read this as an attack against MAG pilots. I just wish that more people like yourself would get INFORMED about the true consequences of such a merger. JO might try to spin it as growth for MAG, BUT BEWARE ANYTHING HE SAYS... this would result in stagnation for MAG pilots once the lists are merged (if you think staple then you need to have your head examined) and quite possibly the undoing of the company (once we are merged we will shut the place down to the point of MAG loosing contracts)

To other MAG pilots out there... please educate some of your brothers as to what is going on.... and you are always welcome on my jumpseat (except the Freedumb guys of course).

Tailwinds-
Pappy

 

[the turtle]

More questions than answers....

Me thinks this articile is slanted by author's opinion...


Thursday, December 11, 2003 10:22AM EST

Mesa dives in, buys Midway assets
Wexford Capital, which had expected to get Midway's assets, chose not to raise its bid

By DUDLEY PRICE, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- A surprise last-minute bid Wednesday allowed Mesa Air Group, one of the nation's largest regional airlines, to win the assets of Midway Airlines in a bankruptcy court auction.
Mesa expects to hire some former Midway workers and could begin flying out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport as soon as January. But Mesa President Michael Lotz said after the hearing that no decisions had been made.

Connecticut-based Wexford Capital, which bailed out Midway with a loan two years ago, bid $8.6 million last month for Midway's operating certificate and eight regional jetliners.

But Wednesday, Phoenix-based Mesa, a publicly traded company, topped the offer with a $9.15 million bid. After nearly an hour of deliberation, Wexford's representatives decided not to offer more.

A. Thomas Small, the federal bankruptcy judge, approved the sale to Mesa. He denied an objection from Midway's pilots union, which argued their existing labor contracts should be included.

Wexford had offered to rehire as many former Midway employees as possible and to keep Midway's former headquarters and a warehouse in Morrisville. Wexford planned to operate the airline as a feeder carrier for US Airways, as Midway, once the Triangle's busiest airline, did before it was ordered liquidated on Oct. 30.

Wexford also offered Robert Ferguson, the former Midway president and CEO, the same job titles at the new airline, which it planned to name Ascent Airlines.

Mesa will also assume the 20-month lease on Midway's former offices and has agreed to hire as many former Midway managers, pilots, flight attendants and ramp workers as possible.

"It would make great economic sense to do that because they are trained on the aircraft," Mesa consultant Edward Wegel testified Wednesday. The purchase involves assets that can quickly be turned into an operating airline, Wegel said. He said the company probably would have feeder flights out of RDU for an unidentified major carrier.

But Mesa's Lotz said in a telephone interview from Phoenix after the hearing that no decision had been made about keeping the headquarters in Morrisville, restarting flights or hiring Ferguson.

Lotz said the main attraction of the assets were Midway's regional jets, which are increasingly being used by airlines because declining demand makes it difficult to fill large jetliners. But airlines are having trouble financing regional jet acquisitions because of industry turmoil. Midway's planes already have financing.

As part of the purchase, Mesa will assume about $90 million in debt on the airlines.

"We're one of the larger operators of regional jets, so we have a need for regional jets," Lotz said.

Mesa now has 99 regional jets and 55 turboprop commuter planes, he said. The company runs commuter flights for United Airlines, America West and US Airways and under its own name.

Midway's former pilots, which are represented by the Washington-based Air Line Pilots Association, lost their effort Wednesday to block a sale unless their labor contract was picked up by the buyer. But some pilots said they might still get a favorable contract if they go to work for Mesa.

Midway's labor contract sets work rules, salaries and specifies that pilots must be rehired according to seniority. Mesa won't pick up the old contract, but Mesa's pilots are already represented by ALPA.

"We're cautiously optimistic the two ALPA groups can work together," said Mark Stewart, a former Midway pilot who leads the union chapter.


Staff writer Dudley Price can be reached at 829-4525 or [email protected].
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[flynryan15]

Midways Certificate

Am I wrong or doesn't Midways Certificate also have 737s on it. Could this be away for Mesa to quickly start flying 737s. That would be great I don't even want to know the poverty wages they would make their pilots fly a 737 for. Just a thought that popped into my mind

 

[the turtle]

JO wants the following from this purchase, IMHO:

1) JETS. Mesa knows these planes. They've been on our cert before, they'll be flying under Mesa again within eight weeks.

2) SPARES. Mesa gets all the parts. Probably worth millions alone.

3) OPTIONS. My understanding is Midway had options and or delievery positions for new CRJ-200's. how many, I don't know.

4) GROWTH. Why watch Wexford grow? Simply a blocking move.

Folks, Mesa doesn't want the pilots (see judges response to Midway's pilot's objections), doesn't care about the employees, maybe wants some mechs and FA's, and if they have a hangar in RDU or nearby that is appealing...but that's it. Mesa will absorb this company like CCAir, keeping what it wants and dumping the rest, and continue to grow as a USAir feeder.

 

[Rottweiller]

Midway's former pilots, which are represented by the Washington-based Air Line Pilots Association, lost their effort Wednesday to block a sale unless their labor contract was picked up by the buyer. But some pilots said they might still get a favorable contract if they go to work for Mesa.

Favorable to an un-employment line that's about all!!

 

[the turtle]

looks like no options or orders. these planes will go to United, and to USAir, if I had to guess....what will Mesa do with the slots? I guess they could sell them, or can they use them under a codeshare agreement?

Press Release Source: Mesa Air Group


Mesa Air Group Announces Successful Bid For The Acquisition of Midway Airlines Assets
Thursday December 11, 2:21 pm ET


PHOENIX, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mesa Air Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MESA - News) announced today that the court accepted its $9.15 million bid to purchase the assets of Midway Airlines, Inc. ("Midway") through Midway's Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. The assets include Midway's operating certificate, six leased CRJ aircraft including Midway's right to three additional leased aircraft and two owned CRJ aircraft, all of Midway's CRJ spare parts and support equipment, all aircraft landing and/or takeoff slots at New York LaGuardia and Washington National airports, and all related acquisition materials associated with the operation of Midway's CRJ operations. The deal is subject to a final order to be entered by the United States Bankruptcy Court approving the sale.

"The assets of Midway Airlines will be placed into service under long-term revenue-guarantee contracts with our airline partners, significantly enhancing our growth in 2004. With our competitive, low cost structure and our tremendous employees, these assets will provide excellent service to our airline partners and are anticipated to earn meaningful returns for our shareholders," said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.