SEC denies airline request
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawaiian Holdings Inc., the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, will not get a letter it wanted from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the company's inability to meet SEC filing deadlines.
Hawaiian Holdings had sought a written opinion — or "no-action letter" — from the SEC staff, which denied the request on Monday.
Company officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
SEC officials had no comment on the commission's filing that noted the denial.
The decision appears to be another defeat for Hawaiian Holdings, which is facing increased scrutiny from the SEC.
In August, Hawaiian Holdings officials said they did not intend to file periodic reports to the SEC because they no longer had "unfettered" access to the airlines' employees and documents.
But last month a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled that Hawaiian Holdings should get access to confidential information that has been sealed in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Hawaiian Holdings attorneys, at the time, said they were not sure how the information would be used. But they said the company needed the information to understand the case and may eventually write a plan for bringing the state's largest carrier out of bankruptcy.
The SEC also is investigating Hawaiian Holdings over a $25 million stock buyback program. The plan generated $17 million for Hawaiian's majority shareholder — former CEO John Adams — and other companies he controls.
Many Hawaiian employees believe the stock buyback marked the start of the company's declining fortunes and its eventual filing for bankruptcy in March.
Last week, Hawaiian Airlines won an arbitrator's binding decision to close pilot bases in Los Angeles and San Francisco, perhaps sometime after Jan. 1.
The closures will affect 40 to 60 pilots. Between 12 to 15 pilots would be furloughed, leaving 30 in Seattle and about 270 based in Honolulu, said Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner.
"While this is an economic necessity, nobody likes doing it," Wagner said.
Company officials are willing to meet with members of the pilots' union over ways to minimize the hardship to pilots' families, he said.
The closures will mean some pilots will be bumped into new positions and planes. Even though the bases may not close until 2004, the effects will be felt as soon as the end of the week when pilot training schedules must be posted for November, said Vance Tilley, a Boeing 767 first officer and spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association.
"There will be a definite slump in pilot morale due to this," Tilley said. "This brings us down to the minimum staffing levels of pilots, and not having the operational flexibility of having pilots on the West Coast and here in Hawai'i could create problems with (work) schedules."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
