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SeaPort files bankruptcy, ADI receives more objections
Owner says SeaPort Airlines Inc. bankruptcy won’t affect spring service
By Kalea Hall
VIENNA
The Youngstown-Chicago service offered by Aerodynamics Inc. is still expected to take off this spring despite a bankruptcy filing by another airline with the same ownership.
Oregon-based SeaPort Airlines Inc. filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon on Feb. 5 citing creditors of 200 to 999, liabilities of $1 million to $10 million and assets of $1 million to $10 million.
Aerodynamics, an Atlanta and Beachwood, Ohio-based company, and SeaPort are both owned by John Beardsley, an Oregon developer, and his wife, Janet.
“We do not feel the SeaPort Bankruptcy will affect the planned service from Youngstown,” said Mickey Bowman, vice president of airline services for ADI, in a statement. “ADI is a separate and distinct carrier from SeaPort.”
SeaPort is a scheduled commuter airline with services to rural communities. The company also offers charter services and scheduled service options, according to its website. Some of its destinations include Houston, Hot Springs, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn.
ADI operates as a charter-service airline. It was recently approved, after a 19-month review by the U.S. Department of Transportation, to offer 10 flights a week from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on a 50-passenger aircraft.
“The DOT did a good job of vetting through this,” said Dan Dickten, director of aviation at the airport, which is operated by the Western Reserve Port Authority. “I totally expect the service to launch in the spring.”
In January 2015, the DOT tentatively denied the application because of concerns with the airline’s previous ownership. Former company leader Scott Beale was found to have committed fraud while soliciting investment funds from a former business partner. Beale resigned as company leader.
The company then entered into a stock-purchase agreement with the primary owners of SeaPort Airlines.
Darrell Richardson, an industry veteran, was named president and chief operating officer of ADI in a June 2015 filing to the DOT showing the airline’s fitness. Rob McKinney was named chief executive officer while he was also CEO, president and chairman of the board of directors at SeaPort.
McKinney recently resigned, according to a news release issued by SeaPort. Timothy Sieber was named president of SeaPort. Richardson assumed the title of president and CEO of ADI after McKinney stepped down, Bowman said.
SeaPort’s board of directors decided to file voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which “generally provides for a company’s reorganization, according to uscourts.gov. The Chapter 11 filing usually allows a business to develop a plan maintain operations and pay creditors over time.
In its list of creditors is Executive Express Aviation. SeaPort has an unsecured claim of $165,458.50 with EEA.
EEA is one of the objectors that has come forward against the Youngstown-Chicago service after the DOT issued its approval.
Tennessee-based EEA’s contention is SeaPort Airlines did not make payments to the company from a contract the two companies had.
ADI called for EEA’s objection to the Youngstown-Chicago service to be rejected because it lumps two separate companies together.
Two other objectors, JA Flight Services out of Illinois, and Sun Air Express of Florida, recently came forward.
JA Flight Services’s CEO is Bruce Jacobs, who is also the president and director of operations for EEA, contends SeaPort has failed to make lease payments.
Though Sun Air has no contractual or other interests in either SeaPort or ADI, the airline is concerned about the loss of service on certain routes SeaPort offered.
“Should ADI be allowed to operate with scheduled authority, the public and communities served will ultimately pay the price,” Sun Air’s objection reads.