Trustee Josh Gotbaum asked the court to waive $45 million the airlines is mandated to pay into the pension fund over the next 25 months.

The expense of paying into the fund, he said, could be "large enough to prevent the development of a feasible reorganization plan."

The pilots pension fund represents the largest of Hawaiian's unions. Officials from the Air Line Pilots Association representing about 380 Hawaiian pilots said yesterday that they had no comment.

Hawaiian "cannot, under any realistic business plan, pay the full amount of $45 million in funding obligations that it faces over the next 25 months, let alone the more than $140 million payable over the next seven years," Gotbaum said in a court filing.

Hawai'i's largest airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. Yesterday's motion was Gotbaum's first significant public action since taking over as trustee on July 3.

"I'm sure it will be one of many," said Russ Young, spokesman for Boeing Capital Corp., which is negotiating with Gotbaum over agreements to lease Boeing's planes. "I'm sure he's got to conserve cash. That means he'll be looking to us as part of that, too."

Today, the bankruptcy court will consider another motion to extend Boeing's lease agreement with Hawaiian while the two sides continue to negotiate terms.

"It is his responsibility to consider the best interests of all of the involved parties and act accordingly," Young said. "So far from what we've seen he's doing that, and we think he'll continue to do that."

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors will meet next week to discuss Gotbaum's request to waive the payments to the pilots pension fund.

Based on Hawaiian's cash flow projections, Gotbaum said, the $45 million pension fund payment would "deplete the cash liquidity of the estate."

Right now Hawaiian has an unrestricted cash balance of about $75 million, he said, but it is largely because of the summer peak season.

The "balance of unrestricted cash will decline significantly as it enters its historically weaker off-season period," Gotbaum wrote.