One Step Closer to LGA; U.S. Bankruptcy Court Approves Bid
Last month, Southwest Airlines submitted a bid in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis that would allow us to assume ATA Airlines’ rights to operate at New York’s LaGuardia (LGA) Airport. The bid was submitted in connection with the Court’s publicly announced auction process for the acquisition of a reorganized ATA, including some of its remaining assets. The Bankruptcy Court stated yesterday that it would grant ATA’s Motion to approve our bid.
While the proposed transaction is still subject to completion of final documentation and Court approval of ATA’s Plan of Reorganization, this ruling is an important step in the right direction in order for Southwest Airlines to offer service to LGA. Also, there are still many details that need to be resolved before we could announce specifics about the type of service we could offer or when we could expect to start service at LGA. We expect to have a final answer to these questions by March 2009.
As a recap, the $7.5 million bid would allow Southwest Airlines to assume ATA’s rights to 14 slots at LaGuardia, which would permit an operation of up to seven daily roundtrip flights. We would not acquire, as a part of our bid, any aircraft, facilities, or employees of ATA, which filed for bankruptcy protection on April 2, 2008.
Once the acquisition is finalized, we will work with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority of New York to commence service at LaGuardia, including acquisition of the necessary airport gate(s) and facilities.
www.southwest.com
