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- BUSINESS, Page 80Business NotesAIRLINESRound Trip To Bankruptcy
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- When Braniff airlines suddenly canceled virtually all its
- 256 daily flights last Wednesday, many customers must have had
- a sinking sense of deja vu. Just five years after the airline
- emerged from a two-year bout with Chapter 11, Braniff said it
- was filing for bankruptcy protection once again. The company's
- decision seemed all the more abrupt because only last May it
- moved its headquarters from Dallas to Orlando and ordered 50 new
- Airbus A320 jetliners for $2 billion.
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- Braniff's bullish executives had hoped to find a niche for
- the midsize airline by developing a hub at the Kansas City
- airport, an opening that was created by a retrenchment at
- bankrupt Eastern Airlines. But Braniff's business failed to grow
- fast enough to support its debt payments. When a recent bridge
- financing deal for $75 million fell through, Braniff was
- strapped for cash. The bankrupt airline, which has laid off
- 2,800 of its 4,800 employees, hopes to rebuild slowly.
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