American Airlines presses creditors By Dan Reed, USA TODAY FORT WORTH =97 To get $200 million in annual cost savings from its lenders= =20 and aircraft lessors, American Airlines' managers may again have to prove=20 their willingness to file for bankruptcy protection as they did Monday.=20 Stories of American's bankruptcy attorneys being ordered via cell phone to= =20 stop just before they filed papers in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn,=20 N.Y., Monday are a little overstated, a senior American official said=20 Tuesday. But attorneys may have been en route to bankruptcy court in New=20 York when board members of American's pilots union voted just before the=20 company's 3 p.m. CT deadline to accept concessions worth $660 million=20 annually, the official said. The pilots' concessions are part of $1.8=20 billion in overall labor savings =97 and $4 billion in total savings =97= that=20 American officials say are needed to avoid bankruptcy protection.=20 Ratification of those deals by members of the company's three unions will=20 be completed by mid-April. Investors responded positively to the news, bidding up the stock of AMR,=20 American's parent, 33% on Monday and an additional 43% Tuesday. AMR closed= =20 at $3 a share. American also said late Tuesday that it won't make payments= =20 on some debts while it awaits union ratification votes and continues=20 negotiations with its lenders and lessors. It didn't say which debts it=20 won't pay or how long it can delay paying before it is in default. Getting= =20 the $200 million in annual savings from its lenders, aircraft lessors and=20 other creditors will be a challenge. To do that outside of bankruptcy=20 court, several restructuring experts said, the airline has to be just as=20 tough as it was with its unions. Financial concessions are negotiated "all= =20 the time" outside of bankruptcy, says attorney Howard Seife, head of the=20 bankruptcy and restructuring practice at the Chadbourne & Parke law firm.=20 But the company seeking concessions operates without the legal leverage it= =20 would have in bankruptcy. Chapter 11 allows debtors to abandon financial=20 contracts deemed too expensive. "It's a giant game of 'chicken," Seife says. In that child's game, two kids= =20 steer their bikes =97 or two teenagers steer their cars =97 directly at each= =20 other to see which one will veer off first to avoid a nasty collision. "The= =20 company on one hand, says 'we'll file bankruptcy if you don't give us=20 concessions.' And on the other side, the creditors say 'go ahead.' " The=20 result usually is a compromise, Seife says. But American doesn't have much= =20 room for that. American is telling creditors it needs $200 million a year=20 in savings or it will file Chapter 11, a company official says. There's no= =20 gamesmanship involved, he says. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week:http://www.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************