David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon
(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)
U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii
Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang
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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS
MICHAEL BOYD
The Boyd Group
78 Beaver Brook Canyon Road
Evergreen, Colorado, 80439
Tel: 303-674-2000
Fax: 303-674-9995
Website: www.aviationplanning.com
Email: aviation-info@aviationplanning.com
President of aviation consultants, The Boyd Group.
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NEW DISCOVERY OF FACTS: Proposed Successor-Trustee David Farmer has worked with Judge Robert Faris, The Boyd Group, and Marsh & McLennan’s Mercer Consulting Services in the Aloha Airlines bankruptcy case.
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March 17, 2002
Dead air deal rankles Aloha
By Susan Hooper, Honolulu Advertiser
The proposed merger between the state's two local airlines foundered because Hawaiian Airlines wanted to change the terms of the agreement, including eliminating the Houston consulting firm coordinating the deal, the chief executive of Aloha Airlines said in a statement today.
Hawaiian's proposal also would have given Hawaiian chairman John Adams the top spots in the merged airline, eliminating Greg Brenneman, the TurnWorks executive who had been orchestrating the merger, according to Glenn Zander, Aloha's president and chief executive officer.
"Aloha could not accept Hawaiian's new proposal because in our judgment, it was not in the best interest of the state, the traveling public or Aloha's shareholders and employees," Zander said.
The details emerged a day after Hawaiian said it was pulling out of the deal because it did not wish to extend what it called an April 18 "outside date for completing the merger." It said increasing costs and risks of the deal were factors.
The announcement surprised many in the state, including employees of both airlines and state legislators who as late as last Tuesday had held a hearing on the merger.
Today, Zander said Hawaiian's action was "regrettable" and said members of Aloha's board of directors voted unanimously to reject Hawaiian's proposal. He also praised Brenneman and TurnWorks for their work on the merger.
Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner said tonight, "We don't necessarily agree with Aloha's characterization of the negotiations, but we also choose not to discuss publicly what would otherwise be private conversations."
The apparent power grab by Adams came even though he and his affiliated companies would have been the financial winners if the merger had gone through. Adams stood to receive assets valued at about $109 million. Adams, his companies and other Hawaiian shareholders also would have held a 52 percent stake in the new airline.
Under terms of the original merger, the shareholders of privately owned Aloha Airlines — many of them relatives of the company founders — would have gotten 28 percent of the merged airline, worth an estimated $56 million.
TurnWorks would have received a 20 percent stake in the company.
For more than a year, Aloha and its consultant have viewed TurnWorks and Brenneman as essential to the success of the merger, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that outlined how the merger came about.
Aloha's consultant, Mercer Management, initially approached Brenneman in February 2001 asking whether he wanted to invest in the airline. In July, Brenneman, a former top executive with Continental Airlines, met further with Mercer to discuss a possible investment and subsequent merger with Hawaiian.
Hawaiian officials, contacted in August, initially appeared cool to the idea but after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and subsequent downturn in travel, they agreed to "discuss a possible merger involving the two airlines and TurnWorks," according to the documents.
On Sept. 22, according to the documents, Mercer and senior management officials of Aloha and Hawaiian met and Mercer proposed that both airlines should continue to include Brenneman and TurnWorks in the merger discussions as Brenneman "was likely to be an important factor in creating an agreement between the two airlines, leading the integration efforts, and running the combined carrier and in generating maximum value for shareholders of both companies."
On Sept. 25, the documents say, all parties agreed to proceed with merger talks. They also agreed "that the involvement of TurnWorks and Brenneman would be an important factor in consummating a deal, as past efforts to combine the two airlines were not successful."
TurnWorks officials said in a statement today, "We were surprised and disappointed (by Hawaiian's decision) ... The failure to extend the timetable essentially precludes completing this complex transaction....
The abrupt end to the merger, which was announced Dec. 19, leaves the future of the two airlines and of Hawai'i's interisland airline market uncertain. In announcing the deal three months ago, executives with both airlines said they needed to merge because conditions in the airline industry — and in the interisland market in particular — had made it impossible for them to survive separately.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, both airlines lost tens of thousands of dollars a day and furloughed hundreds of workers. In recent weeks, as the Mainland economy has recovered, there have been signs of improvement in the local airline market.
Still, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Aloha is financially more vulnerable than Hawaiian. The privately held airline has more debt on its books and reported a $1.25 million loss at the end of the third quarter Sept. 30. The airline also has smaller and older aircraft and fewer flights to the Mainland.
Today Zander said Aloha has its own business plan to move ahead "on a stand-alone basis." Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman said Zander will be meeting with Aloha's employees' union executives tomorrow.
Before the announcements over the weekend, the two airlines had been working on a joint application to take advantage of a special antitrust exemption granted by Congress last November to cooperate on some operations, such as routes, scheduling and pricing....
Gov. Ben Cayetano had been a supporter of the merger and said today, "The failure of the merger had nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Justice, the state Legislature or public opposition. This was a business decision that we will have to accept. The state administration will do its best to try to assure that Hawai'i will continue to have two viable interisland carriers."
State Sen. Ron Menor, D-18th (Mililani, Waipahu, Crestview), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing Committee, had opposed the merger and his committee took part in statewide hearings....
The mood among workers at Honolulu's interisland terminal was split between the two airlines today, with Aloha employees grim-faced and in no mood to talk about the failed merger, and Hawaiian employees buoyant.
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June 19, 2007
US Airways to buy 92 jets from Airbus
Christia Gibbons, The Arizona Republic
US Airways Group announced plans Monday to buy 92 Airbus aircraft to update its fleet and prepare for additional overseas flights. The deal provided a boost to Airbus, which outpaced its rival Boeing in terms of orders on the first day of the International Paris Air Show.
Neither Airbus nor Tempe-based US Airways would reveal the price of the agreement, although list prices of the craft would put the total order at $10 billion to $11 billion. It is likely, however, that US Airways paid less than that amount because the order was so large.
US Airways President Scott Kirby said the decision to pick Airbus over Boeing largely came down to delivery goals that fit better with the company's phase-out, phase-in schedule.
The airline will phase in new aircraft as it retires the B767 fleet. The updated planes will replace, not expand, the fleet, which accommodates about 360 planes.
US Airways said that 60 single-aisle Airbus A320 family aircraft are set to be delivered from 2010 to 2013.
An additional 10 A330-200 aircraft will enter the fleet starting in 2009. The remaining 22 Airbus A350 aircraft will be delivered in 2013.
Airline analyst Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group Inc. in Everett, Wash., called the order a good strategy.
"This allows them to make a hell of a deal on the A350s because they can afford to wait until they need them," he said.
Major international carriers should have the Boeing 787s when they come online next year. By the time US Airways is ready for the A350s, Boyd said, the planes could be among the most technologically advanced in the air.
And, although all fleets do not need the same aircraft, "it's important to standardize within a fleet," he said, adding that inconsistencies happened as a result of the merger of America West and US Airways in 2005.
Boeing's Dreamliner 787, rival to the A350s, is set to be in the air by May 2008.
US Airways officials considered this craft over the A350s, but were swayed by delivery goals. The A350 has three versions.
One accommodates 250 to 270 passengers, a second 300 to 330 passengers and the third more than 350 passengers. The airline hopes to win a route to China and fly the A350s to that country by 2014.
Airbus and Chicago-based Boeing tout the fuel efficiency of their new jets along with greater passenger comfort and convenience.
Airbus emphasizes better overhead storage bins, while Boeing promises higher cabin humidity, both boasting better seat configuration and comfort.
Airbus was ahead on orders the first day of the world's largest air show with $45 billion vs. Boeing's $4.4 billion.
However, the U.S. aircraft company had 584 orders for its Dreamliner coming into the week-long show.
Currently, US Airways has 205 Airbus aircraft, 148 Boeing Co. airplanes and one Embracer
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Micheal Boyd is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, personal and political relationships with Hawaiian Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Linda Lingle, Ben Cayetano, John Waihee, Lyn Anzai, Joshua Gotbaum, Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate, Kessner Duca Umebayashi Bain & Matsunaga, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Airbus, Northrop-Grumman, BAE, Henry Paulson, Goldman Sachs, Robert Rubin, Citigroup, Wackenhut, Akal Security, Michelle Burns, David C. Farmer, Curtis Ching, Carol Muranaka, James Nicholson, Steven Guttman, John McCain, and other to be named upon discovery.
Internet References:
www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP-2.htm
www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP-3.htm
www.kycbs.net/Freedom-To-Sing.htm
www.kycbs.net/Whistleblowers.htm
www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?article_id=26061
TO GO TO THE WOO VS. HARMON WITNESS INDEX
www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Index.htm