Hawaiian Air extension
placed on hold as war brews
on data access
A rift between Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum and one of the notable reorganization plan groups appeared to widen yesterday in a federal Bankruptcy Court hearing over the timely dissemination of information and whether the deadline for filing reorganization plans should be extended six weeks.
Attorneys for aircraft lessor Boeing Capital Corp. and turnaround firm Corporate Recovery Group LLC accused Gotbaum of "trashing" their joint reorganization plan and said he was trying to control the process.
Bruce Bennett, Gotbaum's attorney, said the Boeing Capital-Corporate Recovery tandem, with its $250 million price tag, was the lowest bidder still involved in the process and that unless that proposal was upgraded they would not be around when the airline is reorganized.
Bennett also said that five of the 13 parties interested in teaming up with the trustee and the committee on a reorganization plan would move on to the next level.
Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris gave the trustee a partial victory in ruling that the release of financial details involving sensitive route information could be delayed until later in the process, and said that all parties would have to abide by the same set of rules regarding the dissemination of data.
"The court has once again decided in our favor, recognizing the need to safeguard proprietary information, while maintaining a fair competition that doesn't favor one party or another," Gotbaum said.
Faris put off ruling on a request filed late Thursday night by Gotbaum and the unsecured creditors' committee to extend the deadline for filing reorganization plans six weeks to July 26 and the date for modifying those plans to Aug. 6. He scheduled a hearing for Friday at 2 p.m. to give other parties time to respond.
Corporate Recovery Group attorney Richard Miller, who argued against the extension, said the airline's monthly expense for attorneys and consultants is now about $1.8 million.