A failure to secure ongoing debtor in possession (DIP) financing will see Swift Air LLC, doing business as iAero Airways (WQ, Greensboro Piedmont Triad International), end operations on April 6, 2024. The charter operator could not find a buyer for the business that serviced both contract and ad hoc customers.
“It is with great regret that without continuing DIP financing from our lenders or an alternative lender, we have been directed to prepare to suspend all revenue operations of the airline at the end of the day on April 6," president and chief executive Timothy Rainey told staff in a memo reported on by FreightWaves.
Swift Air and 16 affiliated entities filed for Chapter 11 last September, having secured USD22.5 million DIP financing to allow it to continue operations while reorganising the business. It negotiated a further USD5 million in DIP financing last month. At the same time, it closed a deal to sell twenty-eight B737s, 79 engines, and 40 auxiliary power units to Eastern Airlines (2D, Miami International) in exchange for Synovus Financial Corporation assuming USD71 million worth of first lien debts. However, it failed to find a buyer to take over its remaining fleet that services customers such as DHL Airways (Cincinnati International) and the National Hockey League.
According to FreightWaves, iAero was operating around 100 flights per week for DHL using 12 aircraft when it filed for bankruptcy protection. The sale of the 28 aircraft, which the US Southern District of Florida Bankruptcy Court must still approve, would reduce iAero's fleet to 16 aircraft, according to the ch-aviation fleets module.
That transaction will see iAero dispose of its seven-strong B737-300 fleet, seventeen out of eighteen B737-400s, two B737-800s, and its sole B737-300(F). According to ch-aviation fleets data, this will leave iAero with the single B737-400, two B737-400(SF)s, three B737-800s, five B737-800(BDSF)s, four B737-800(SF)s, and a single B767-300ER. Of the unsold aircraft, the two B737-400SFs, five B737-800BDSFs, and three B737-800SFs are operated by iAero on behalf of DHL Express, while the B767-300ER is operated on behalf of the Houston Rockets NBA team.
Meanwhile, assorted creditors recently filed objections to the proposed Eastern transaction, claiming it will benefit Synovus at the expense of all other stakeholders and one creditor alleging a non-cash sweetheart deal.
