Mark,
nope - Polar was formed in 1993 as a joint venture between Southern Air Transport and
GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) as well as NedMark. It started operations in June 1993 and began with charter flights, later adding scheduled services. Polaris leasing was the arm of GECAS that originally leased planes to PanAm and also, I believe, Flying Tigers
From Answers.com
... in September 1993, GE Capital announced plans to create a new subsidiary, GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), to manage GPA's assets. It also bought 44 of GPA's 464 aircraft outright for US$1.4 billion (IR £920 million). GECAS had the option to buy a nearly two-thirds stake in GPA by March 1998. GPA agreed not to use the names GPA or Guinness Peat Aviation after 2001.
GECAS was staffed by 160 GPA employees (25 remained with GPA) and based at Shannon. The virtual merger was complex and difficult, its structure devised to prevent GE Capital from assuming GPA's liabilities. GPA essentially was divided into two companies, only the namesake being responsible for the $5 billion debt. GECAS was formally established in November 1993. GE Capital's own San Francisco-based Polaris Aircraft Leasing, based in California, was incorporated into it.
Also from Answers.com
Polar Air Cargo, L.P. was formed in January 1993 as a partnership between Polaris Holding Company, Southern Air Transport, Inc., and NedMark Transportation Services Inc. Southern Air, a major
unscheduled cargo airline based in Miami, operated the planes, which were owned by Polaris Holding of San Francisco, a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Services; the three Boeing 747 freighters had formerly carried passengers for Pan American.
Jack Welch decided he needed to get some revenue out of the planes he had sitting around so he formed Polar Air Cargo as a partnership with Polaris (GECAS) SAT and NedMark..
Your Oz/NZ routes were code shares, which is way different than the ACMI being flown now by Atlas. So for you or your MEC to say that the Atlas pilots "stole" or even had anything to do with siphoning your flying is beyond ludicrous. The simple fact is that as a non-integrated carrier, the Polar scheduled routes to SYD and NZ were doomed to failure.