The airline’s reorganisation has been confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware after receiving support from all voting classes of creditors and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors.
Under the plan, WGA has materially reduced its debt by more than $460 million and infused new capital in the company while retaining its workforce and relationships with customers and suppliers.
Over 100 days, WGA has restructured its debt, operated without disruption and implemented a cash award retention programme for almost its entire workforce during the process by drawing on $77.5 million of Debtor in Possession financing provided by owners Jim and Sunny Neff, who funded the equity and exit financing, and waived nearly $100 million of secured and unsecured pre-petition debt they held in order to provide recovery to all creditors.
WGA has exited Chapter 11 with its pre-petition fleet of 4 Boeing 747-400Fs, 15 MD-11Fs in operation, 2 other MD-11Fs, 11 part-out aircraft and a large inventory of parts, materials and tooling.
During Chapter 11, WGA completed the overhaul of 7 CF6-80C2 engines.
Jim Neff, Founder and CEO of WGA, says, “It continues to be a privilege to lead our team, especially as WGA has emerged stronger and ready to thrive again as it has historically done. As always, I am immensely grateful to our employees, customers, and partners for their enduring support as we navigated this process.”