A consortium of lenders led by BNP Paribas, collectively owed around USD90 million, is pushing to continue with the sale of RavnAir Group's assets, even as the embattled holding is trying to lure investors into buying its whole business.

Alaskan radio station KTOO said the French bank's attorney, David Neier, argued during a court hearing that the search for an investor should not interrupt the efforts to raise money for creditors through a piecemeal sell-off.

"If it comes together that there's somebody who's interested in taking the federal money and funding a plan, that would be great news. But we're not giving up the liquidation process because there is no other path that has emerged that will work with this estate," he said.

At the same time, Neier underlined that the ongoing attempts to find an investor for the airline group are not "illusory".

RavnAir Group, the owner of Corvus Airlines, Hageland Aviation Services, Frontier Flying Service, and PenAir, filed for Chapter 11 in early April 2020. The holding subsequently decided to liquidate the company rather than seek relaunch. It has been tentatively approved for USD30 million in US federal payroll support, which it could receive once an investor proceeds with the acquisition and the relaunch.

The Alaskan group estimates that a piecemeal sale of its assets, including 72 aircraft, could net around USD41 million in the best case, less than a half of what RavnAir owes to secured creditors led by BNP Paribas. The USD90 million debt does not include claims filed by unsecured creditors.

The court approved the sale of RavnAir's assets on May 27.

The airline has also sought the court's permission to return nine leased aircraft, as well as engines and propellers. The list of aircraft contains:

  • two Cessna (single turboprop) 208B Grand Caravans N750RV (msn C208B-5194) and N755RV (msn C208B-5299) leased from firms owned by RavnAir Group's Vice-Chairman of the Board Bob Hajdukovich;
  • four Saab 2000s: N680PA (msn 2000-020), N681PA (msn 2000-027), N682PA (msn 2000-030), and N687PA (msn 2000-021) leased from Jetstream Aviation Capital, as well as a further one unit of the type, N686PA (msn 2000-017), which was damaged beyond repair at Dutch Harbor in October 2019, and another one, N462PA (msn 2000-046) owned by MG Alaska Leasing Limited;
  • a single Dash 8-100 N886EA (msn 215) owned by Avmax Aircraft Leasing.