May 07--Kansas City-based Jet Midwest wants to buy "substantially all" of the assets, including aircraft and leases, from bankrupt Evergreen International Aviation and four affiliated companies for $4.28 million, bankruptcy court documents show.
Alfred Giuliano, the trustee in the bankruptcy proceeding, has asked the judge to approve the request. The court is scheduled to take up the matter May 15.
Jet Midwest executives did not respond to requests for comment about their plans for the aircraft or for Evergreen's facilities in McMinnville. The trustee also did not respond to queries.
Jet Midwest is an aircraft and aviation services provider based at Kansas City International Airport. According to news reports, it supplies aircraft to Frontier, Air Canada, American, British Airways, KLM, Delta, FedEx and other carriers. The Kansas City Business Journal reported in December the company had more than 200 employees and was the "world's largest supplier of parts for the Boeing 767 and Fokker 100."
The documents show Jet Midwest and the trustee value an Evergreen 747 Supertanker at $250,000, although the price can change depending on delivery details. The Supertanker can precisely drop 20,000 gallons of fire retardant over a three-mile swath of land, according to published reports. Wired.com said Evergreen spent more than $50 million developing the firefighting plane, which costs $30,000 an hour to lease.
Other assets listed in the Jet Midwest purchase agreement include five 747s and multiple other aircraft.
Evergreen's New Year's Eve bankruptcy filing covers only the for-profit Evergreen companies, not the not-for-profit museum and waterpark across the highway in McMinnville.
-- Mike Francis
Copyright 2014 - The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
