KCRag Forum

missingkc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:46 pm According to the business journal, they are now a cargo only airline. In KC, they will convert passenger jets to cargo jets.

AllThingsKC wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:31 pm So they were established in Kansas City in 2021, moved to Pennsylvania and now back to Kansas City? Seems odd.

missingkc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:46 pm According to the business journal, they are now a cargo only airline. In KC, they will convert passenger jets to cargo jets.

langosta wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:48 pm

AllThingsKC wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:31 pm So they were established in Kansas City in 2021, moved to Pennsylvania and now back to Kansas City? Seems odd.

KC was just the conversion operation. The cargo and passenger operations have been elsewhere and I’d imagine continue to be elsewhere for the most part. It’s just now that the office/hq moving here.

Edit: Eastern’s biggest shareholder is also a controlling owner of El Al and board member/shareholder of Atlas Air

Highlander wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:39 pm

langosta wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 2:48 pm

AllThingsKC wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:31 pm So they were established in Kansas City in 2021, moved to Pennsylvania and now back to Kansas City? Seems odd.

KC was just the conversion operation. The cargo and passenger operations have been elsewhere and I’d imagine continue to be elsewhere for the most part. It’s just now that the office/hq moving here.

Edit: Eastern’s biggest shareholder is also a controlling owner of El Al and board member/shareholder of Atlas Air

The article I read said all operations would move to Kansas City.

"The move of Eastern’s headquarters will consolidate all of its operations at 11500 N Ambassador Drive in Platte County near the Kansas City International Airport."

And from the Missouri Department of Economic Development: "Eastern Airlines has had a presence in Kansas City since 2021, when it purchased Alta Aero Technic, a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility, and formed Foxtrot Aero, a passenger-to-freighter design company. The company’s move of its headquarters will now consolidate all its operations to Kansas City." I assume that means more than just HQ operations?

The company was founded in 1997 as Swift Air, which iAero Group acquired and rebranded as iAero Airways in 2019. It operates a fleet of 42 aircraft, with hubs in Miami and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Aero Airways – which is under US bankruptcy protection – is pursuing an asset-sale agreement involving an entity linked with carrier Eastern Airlines.

The agreement identifies nearly 30 Boeing 737s, along with engines and auxiliary power units, as part of the purchase.

Synovus, which has first priority over the company’s assets, recently agreed to sell 28 Boeing 737 passenger aircraft to Eastern Airlines in exchange for assuming $71 million in first-lien debt, but iAero has been unable to find anyone interested in running the DHL cargo and NHL business, said Rainey.

Eastern is a small airline that currently operates four Boeing 767 widebody passenger jets and two Boeing 777s, mostly on a charter basis. It offered some scheduled service to South America from New York a couple years ago. The company has 14 planes on its books, but eight of the aircraft have not flown in months, according to aircraft tracking site FlightRadar24.

A judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami is scheduled on April 8 to make a decision on whether to approve the asset sale to Eastern Airlines. Under terms of its stalking horse bid, any party that makes a higher offer for iAero has to pay a $2 million breakup fee.

Multiple creditors oppose the sale of assets to Eastern Airlines, arguing that the sale process is designed to benefit Synovus at the expense of all other stakeholders. Private Jet Services Group, the general sales agency, alleges iAero and former president Jeffrey Conry, now an executive at Eastern, struck a non-cash sweetheart deal to help iAero’s owners avoid paying $102 million for breach of contract that began when Conry was at iAero.