Thu, Mar 05, 2009
Judge Tells Mesa To go! Start Over
The attempt by Mesa Air Group to use
the name of a former competitor has hit a snag.
KITV-4 in Hawaii reports a federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday
agreed the sale of the Aloha Airlines name and other intellectual
property to the company which drove it out of business had not been
fair to competing bidders.
The Yucaipa Companies, LLC became the largest shareholder in
Aloha Airlines in 2005, as part of an attempt to buy the company
out. Mesa's "go!" subsidiary entered what had been a
competitively-sleepy Hawaiian inter-island market in 2006, with
fares low enough to cause its competitor Aloha to fold.
As ANN reported, Yucaipa retained the rights
to the name, and was prepared to license its use to "go!" in a deal
which would have extended some additional benefits to former Aloha
employees displaced in the bankruptcy.
But Randy Kauhane of the International Association of Machinists
told Judge Lloyd King the union was excluded from bidding. King
also noted that Yucaipa and the trustee denied Honolulu Advertiser
reporter Rick Daysog access to observe the proceedings, calling the
move "outrageous."
The court has ruled there is no evidence of bid rigging or
collusion, but King has also found the so-called public sale was
not a public sale, and will force a do-over.
Despite those snags, US trustee James Wagner expects go! will
eventually win rights to the Aloha name... unless someone else
offers Yucaipa more money.
"Yucaipa stands to get $6 million or $7 million from go!" he
said. "If someone else offered Yucaipa would let them have it."
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