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- · BUSINESS, Page 65Business NotesAIRLINESPeanuts from a Greedy Parent
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- Ever since Eastern Air Lines went bankrupt a year ago this
- week, its creditors and unions have contended that Texas Air,
- the troubled carrier's parent firm, had stripped the airline
- like an abandoned car. Last week the bankruptcy-court examiner
- endorsed that view, ruling that Texas Air underpaid Eastern by
- as much as $403 million in twelve separate transfers to
- Continental Airlines and other Texas Air units of such assets as
- aircraft and airport gates. In the most egregious case, Texas
- Air paid Eastern only $100 million for the airline's entire
- computer reservations unit. Yet last month the parent firm sold
- a half interest in the system to General Motors for $250
- million.
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- Texas Air has agreed to pay Eastern $280 million to settle
- the examiner's charges. That should please Eastern's creditors,
- but will do the workers little good. Texas Air chief Frank
- Lorenzo has already hired nonunion machinists to help get
- Eastern off the ground.
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