Aloha Airlines lender GMAC promises to pay employees

Aloha Airlines' lender said yesterday that even though it is not legally obligated, it will pay pilots and other employees who worked without compensation between April 16 and April 28, but not until after Saltchuk Resources Inc. closes its deal Wednesday to acquire the cargo division from Aloha.

"It will be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the cargo business to Saltchuk," GMAC Commercial Finance LLC attorney Douglas Lipke said yesterday during a federal Bankruptcy Court hearing.

Those dates in the second half of April represents the last pay period before Aloha converted its bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation from Chapter 11 reorganization.

A hearing on Aloha trustee Dane Field's motion to approve the sale, as well as a trustee motion to reject all six of Aloha's union contracts, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday.

GMAC already had committed to pay employees involved with the cargo division during the two weeks it takes to close that deal after cargo operations resumed on May 1.

The Air Line Pilots Association, whose Aloha pilots resumed flying cargo last week following a three-day shutdown, took out a full-page advertisement yesterday in the Star-Bulletin decrying that they haven't been paid for three weeks.

Meanwhile, attorneys for ALPA, GMAC, Saltchuk and the trustee agreed yesterday to limit documents and deposition questions to those connected to ALPA, Aloha's pilots and the labor contract, including the decision to convert to Chapter 7 and the ultimate selection of Saltchuk. To be questioned are George Triebenbacher, president of GMAC's structured finance division; Saltchuk Chairman Mark Tabbutt; Field, the Aloha trustee; Aloha Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Kessler; and Al Pattison, Aloha's senior vice president of human resources.