Hooters Air Inc. to Buy Vanguard Assets
Looks like the previously reported deal is a go.
However, sadly:
... "there certainly won't be Hooters girls running up and down the aisles," Block said. "It's going to look like an airline. It's not going to look like a Hooters restaurant," he said...
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Hooters Owner Plans to Buy Assets of Vanguard Airlines
By Josh Freed Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 6, 2002
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The owner of the Hooters restaurant chain is preparing a bid to buy the assets of bankrupt Vanguard Airlines Inc.
The Kansas City-based airline will be renamed Hooters Air Inc. and may use the distinctive orange coloring, said A.J. Block, the Atlanta-based attorney for Hooters of America chairman Robert H. Brooks.
But, "there certainly won't be Hooters girls running up and down the aisles," Block said. "It's going to look like an airline. It's not going to look like a Hooters restaurant," he said.
Brooks has been giving Vanguard about $50,000 each week since mid-August to keep a skeleton staff while he considered whether to buy the assets of the idled low-fare carrier. He plans to submit a formal bid in the next few weeks, Block said.
The offer will be ready on Monday, but Brooks may wait until the following week to submit the proposal because of next week's anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Brooks did not respond to a request for an interview. A Vanguard spokeswoman did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press.
The new airline would fly about five of Vanguard's current routes, with more to be added later, Block said.
Block said he expects many Vanguard employees will be hired back. Vanguard laid off about 1,000 workers when it shut down operations and filed for bankruptcy on July 30.
All of Vanguard's airplanes were leased. Brooks would be buying assets such as airplane parts, ground equipment and furniture, Block said.
Brooks founded Eastern Foods Inc. in 1966, which makes dressings and sauces. Hooters was founded in 1983, and Brooks and a group of Atlanta investors bought expansion and franchise rights for the chain in 1984. Brooks eventually bought majority control and became chairman.
Vanguard, founded in 1994, had never shown a yearly profit. But Sept. 11 made its problems worse, and it - along with US Airways and Midway Airlines - have filed for bankruptcy since the terrorist attacks.
Block has said Brooks was interested in Vanguard partly because he lives Myrtle Beach, S.C., which was among the airline's destinations.
AP-ES-09-06-02 1818EDT