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Monday, November 21, 2005

Quick Takes

  • While the mysterious prospective buyer of AirNet Systems [ANS] still has almost two weeks to complete its due diligence before finalizing the sale details on Nov. 30, one other firm has stepped forward and is lamenting that it was not given serious consideration. Universal Express [USXP], the Florida parent of Luggage Express and unsuccessful suitor of Alpine Air Express [ALPE], last week announced that it had made an offer for AirNet. It said its undisclosed offer was "substantially higher" than the $4.55 per share, or $46.2 million, that the unnamed AirNet suitor is willing to pay.

    When AirNet announced its pending sale on Oct. 26, the offering price was 60 cents less that what it had traded for the day before the announcement (RAN, Oct. 31). Even though Universal had less than $19,100 in cash on hand on June 30, and a fiscal 2005 loss of $9.9 million, the company said it had obtained the funding to buy AirNet. A year ago, Universal tried to buy Alpine for more than $12 million in order to create the nation's largest cargo airline. That deal would have been financed in part by mortgaging the Alpine fleet. Universal, which has been fighting charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stemming from earlier failed deals, could not meet Alpine's terms for a cash down-payment to proceed with the deal (CRAN, Oct. 18, Oct. 25, 2005). For its part, AirNet announced last week that it has delayed issuing its third quarter numbers until at least Nov. 21 because of an accounting standards issue that was discovered in the due diligence research.

  • The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently placed a database of all its safety recommendations on its Web site. The database contains about 12,400 recommendations that the agency has issued since 1967. Each recommendation listing includes an up-to-date status report on the implementation progress of the recommendation. The database can be accessed at http://www.ntsb.gov/safetyrecs.

     

  • Florida's Panama City Airport has taken the first steps to sell its existing 713-acre waterfront airport. The airport authority will use the proceeds to pay for the local share of the new airport, which will be built on a 4,000-acre parcel donated by the St. Joe Co. (RAN, Oct. 10). The airport will host an information session on Nov. 7 and set Feb. 7, 2006, as the deadline for bids on the existing airport. The airport authority hopes to complete the sale on March 21, 2006. The airport expects to receive an approval of its environmental impact statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the end of the year.

     

  • The European Parliament has approved legislation that will create a continent-wide blacklist of unsafe airlines. Individual nations will still have the power to ban from their skies airlines determined to be unsafe. The carriers on the list will have a chance to defend themselves in an effort to stay off the list. Passengers buying tickets in the European Union, under the new law, will be told what carrier will be flying the trip. If the carrier is on the blacklist, the passenger would be entitled to a refund or a ticket on a different carrier. The European Commission must still act on the measure at its Dec. 5 meeting for the law to become effective next year.
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