2004 Ata Airlines example essay topic

On October 23, 2004 ATA Airlines filed for bankruptcy. The Indianapolis-based carrier also said it has agreed to sell its hub at Chicago's Midway Airport to Air Tran, one of its major competitors, for $87.5 million dollars. Like other airlines operating in bankruptcy, Air Tran said it will maintain its full flight schedule and honor its frequent-flier commitments. The tenth-largest U.S. airline by traffic, ATA joins United, US Airways and Hawaiian Airlines in bankruptcy. ATA is the first major low-co st airline to seek bankruptcy protection. It has long been having difficulties by its costly leases, estimated to be about $100 million dollars per year over prevailing market rates.

ATA will turn over its slots at New York's La Guardia and Washington Reagan National Airport to Air Tran and will fly fifteen of its aircraft on Air Tran behalf for six months. ATA has not arranged financing during bankruptcy but Chairman J. George Mikel sone said the Air Tran deal would provide immediate cash infusion while he lines up financing elsewhere. ATA lost $90 million dollars in the first half of this year on revenue of $778 million dollars. ATA Airlines is trying everything they can to have their company.

But they are going to have to wait it out. Some of their opinions is to reorganize, return to profitability, settle their debts, and be released from bankruptcy; or they could go out of business and have their assets auctioned off under court supervision to pay as many of their remaining debts as possible. They say that the bankruptcy could probably go on for many months, perhaps for years. Some airlines, such as Continental Airlines and American West, have reorganized under bankruptcy protection, and are still operating. Several others in the USA, and more in other parts of the world, have gone out of business, sometimes after being in and out of bankruptcy repeatedly. Many people had questions about if they bought tickets for an airline and then they went bankrupt what should they do?

They need to wait and see. You can't get retroactive insurance. Also be prepared for schedule changes, flight cancellations, or other disruptions of your plans, before or during your trip, possibly with little or no warning. Another thing is if you have electronic tickets, consider going to the airline's ticket counter at an airport, or one of its city ticket offices, and paying to get your ticket converted to paper tickets.

I believe that if I was in charge of an airline that went bankrupt, I would just have to wait it out. You really can't do much about your company. I think I would have done exactly what ATA Airlines did and sold their airline to another company. It seems to work out better for everyone if they do that. In conclusion ATA went through bankruptcy on October 23, 2004. ATA sold their airlines to the Chicago's hub for 87.5 million dollars.

Now ATA Airlines has to sit back and wait it out to see exactly what happens. And the process could take months or even years to figure out what is going to happen.