upndsky
Freightdog 4 Life
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2001
- Posts
- 304
From the Raleigh, NC, News & Observer
http://newsobserver.com/business/story/3034935p-2777363c.html
Like Lazarus, Midway may rise
If a sale is approved, the bankrupt airline would get a new name but keep its Triangle headquarters
By DUDLEY PRICE, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- Midway Airlines just won't stay on the ground.
Wexford Capital, a Connecticut company that bailed out Midway with a loan two years ago, has offered to buy the bankrupt carrier's jets and operating certificate. Midway could be back in the air in as soon as a month.
"We're baaaack!" said Robert Ferguson, Midway's president and chief executive, after a brief hearing Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Ferguson has kept his job on a transitional basis while the company is being liquidated.
Midway Airlines Corp. technically ceased to exist late last month when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Thomas Small ordered the Morrisville-based carrier liquidated and its assets sold to repay creditors after 26 months in Chapter 11.
If the Small approves the sale to Wexford, the airline would not be named Midway, and Ferguson said he didn't know what role he might have in running the airline.
But the carrier would keep its headquarters offices in the Triangle for at least 20 months, which means some former employees could be rehired. And after a number of incarnations -- including as the leading carrier at Raleigh-Durham Airport and most recently as a commuter affiliate of US Airways -- the carrier would be airborne again.
"We have an offer from a bona fide third party capable of closing" to buy the Canadair regional jets and the jet parts, said Joseph Callaway, the court-appointed trustee who is liquidating Midway's assets. Midway's eight 50-seat Canadair regional jets have been parked at Kinston's Global TransPark since the airline ceased flights Oct. 29. Wexford has also offered to buy the operating certificate, which is issued by the Department of Transportation and allows the company to be an airline.
But Callaway, a bankruptcy lawyer based in Rocky Mount, cautioned that he's not ready to recommend that the assets be sold to Wexford. Wexford has signed a letter of intent to buy the planes but no formal contract has been submitted.
"This is not a done deal by any means," Callaway said.
For most of this year, Midway had been trying to reinvent itself as a commuter feeder for US Airways. But the airline gave up its fight to exit bankruptcy and become a successful operation last month, saying it was unable to reach a new labor agreement with its pilots. Concessions from the pilots was a condition of a loan of $10 million to $15 million from an unidentified investor that the airline said was needed to repay creditors if its bankruptcy protection were lifted.
Midway has about $20 million in assets -- mostly the eight planes and parts -- and liabilities that could be as much as $600 million. Callaway said one option would be to sell off the assets in bulk to Wexford. Another would be to sell Midway's assets piecemeal.
Callaway wouldn't say what Wexford had offered to pay for the assets, and Wexford general counsel Arthur Amron declined to comment.
But a contract from Wexford, based in Greenwich, Conn., could be ready by next week when a hearing is scheduled on repaying an $8.6 million loan to US Airways, which is first in line among Midway's hundreds of creditors.
Ferguson said it's unclear what role the airline would have if Wexford buys its planes. The regional jets would be used to provide a commuter passenger feed for a larger airline, but he didn't know which one.
Midway would be Wexford's second airline. The firm owns Chautauqua Airlines of Indianapolis, which provides commuter service for American, Delta and US Airways. It is unlikely Midway would be folded into Chautauqua because that airline operates different types of jets.
"We'd do everything they wanted us to do," Ferguson said.
----------------------------
FYI, Wexford also has a stake in Shuttle America. Whether they own it outright I don't know.
http://newsobserver.com/business/story/3034935p-2777363c.html
Like Lazarus, Midway may rise
If a sale is approved, the bankrupt airline would get a new name but keep its Triangle headquarters
By DUDLEY PRICE, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- Midway Airlines just won't stay on the ground.
Wexford Capital, a Connecticut company that bailed out Midway with a loan two years ago, has offered to buy the bankrupt carrier's jets and operating certificate. Midway could be back in the air in as soon as a month.
"We're baaaack!" said Robert Ferguson, Midway's president and chief executive, after a brief hearing Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Ferguson has kept his job on a transitional basis while the company is being liquidated.
Midway Airlines Corp. technically ceased to exist late last month when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Thomas Small ordered the Morrisville-based carrier liquidated and its assets sold to repay creditors after 26 months in Chapter 11.
If the Small approves the sale to Wexford, the airline would not be named Midway, and Ferguson said he didn't know what role he might have in running the airline.
But the carrier would keep its headquarters offices in the Triangle for at least 20 months, which means some former employees could be rehired. And after a number of incarnations -- including as the leading carrier at Raleigh-Durham Airport and most recently as a commuter affiliate of US Airways -- the carrier would be airborne again.
"We have an offer from a bona fide third party capable of closing" to buy the Canadair regional jets and the jet parts, said Joseph Callaway, the court-appointed trustee who is liquidating Midway's assets. Midway's eight 50-seat Canadair regional jets have been parked at Kinston's Global TransPark since the airline ceased flights Oct. 29. Wexford has also offered to buy the operating certificate, which is issued by the Department of Transportation and allows the company to be an airline.
But Callaway, a bankruptcy lawyer based in Rocky Mount, cautioned that he's not ready to recommend that the assets be sold to Wexford. Wexford has signed a letter of intent to buy the planes but no formal contract has been submitted.
"This is not a done deal by any means," Callaway said.
For most of this year, Midway had been trying to reinvent itself as a commuter feeder for US Airways. But the airline gave up its fight to exit bankruptcy and become a successful operation last month, saying it was unable to reach a new labor agreement with its pilots. Concessions from the pilots was a condition of a loan of $10 million to $15 million from an unidentified investor that the airline said was needed to repay creditors if its bankruptcy protection were lifted.
Midway has about $20 million in assets -- mostly the eight planes and parts -- and liabilities that could be as much as $600 million. Callaway said one option would be to sell off the assets in bulk to Wexford. Another would be to sell Midway's assets piecemeal.
Callaway wouldn't say what Wexford had offered to pay for the assets, and Wexford general counsel Arthur Amron declined to comment.
But a contract from Wexford, based in Greenwich, Conn., could be ready by next week when a hearing is scheduled on repaying an $8.6 million loan to US Airways, which is first in line among Midway's hundreds of creditors.
Ferguson said it's unclear what role the airline would have if Wexford buys its planes. The regional jets would be used to provide a commuter passenger feed for a larger airline, but he didn't know which one.
Midway would be Wexford's second airline. The firm owns Chautauqua Airlines of Indianapolis, which provides commuter service for American, Delta and US Airways. It is unlikely Midway would be folded into Chautauqua because that airline operates different types of jets.
"We'd do everything they wanted us to do," Ferguson said.
----------------------------
FYI, Wexford also has a stake in Shuttle America. Whether they own it outright I don't know.
