Boeing Capital Corp., the finance arm of Chicago-based Boeing Co., is asking a federal bankruptcy judge to replace Hawaiian Airlines Inc.’s management with a trustee to oversee the carrier.
Boeing Capital, which is Hawaiian’s main lessor, filed the motion Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu, 10 days after Hawaiian filed for Chapter 11 protection.
“Hawaiian’s management–in particular, John W. Adams, Hawaiian’s chairman, chief executive officer and majority shareholder–has conclusively demonstrated that its extensive self-dealing and inherent conflicts of interests require appointment of a trustee,” the motion said.
Boeing had offered to reduce aircraft rents to the airline, which cited inadequate concessions from lessors when it filed for bankruptcy protection March 21.
Hawaiian called the motion “a thinly veiled attempt by Boeing to distract the company and the court during the 60-day statutory period during which the company is afforded the opportunity to renegotiate its leases.”
Seattle-based Boeing Capital leases 13 Boeing 717 narrow-body jets and three wide-body 767-300ER planes to the carrier, accounting for a combined $546 million of the leasing unit’s portfolio.
Boeing claims that company insiders and Adams, who holds 50.9 percent of the parent company’s stock, reaped nearly 70 percent of a $25 million stock repurchase plan the company began in April 2002.
