The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ GARDEN STATE: NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS GARDEN STATE stars Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. NEWSWEEK's David Ansen says "Writer-Director Zach Braff has a genuine filmmaker's eye and is loaded with talent." Watch the teaser trailer that has all of America buzzing and talk back with Zach Braff on the Garden State Blog at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/gardenstate/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ US Air to Seek 5-Year Extension for Pension Fund Payments August 17, 2004 By MICHELINE MAYNARD US Airways, facing a cash shortage as it tries to avoid another bankruptcy filing, said yesterday that it would seek government permission to stretch out $67.5 million in contributions it owes to the pensions of its mechanics and flight attendants. The airline plans to ask the Internal Revenue Service for waivers that will allow it to spread the contributions, due for 2004, for up to five years. US Airways said the move would not affect benefits to members of the International Association of Machinists and the Association of Flight Attendants. The request came five days after its pilots' union released a report from its financial adviser saying the airline was in danger of a second bankruptcy filing by mid-September and could cease operating within six months unless it could significantly cut its operating costs. US Airways, which emerged from bankruptcy in April 2003, is seeking $800 million in wage and benefit cuts from its unions, on top of two sets of concessions granted in bankruptcy. In a hot line recording last week, the airline's chief executive, Bruce R. Lakefield, who has repeatedly warned workers about US Airways' dire outlook, expressed frustration with the slow pace of negotiations. US Airways faces a series of financial deadlines next month, including pension contributions due Sept. 15. The airline, which has already paid $28.4 million to its machinists' and flight attendants' plans for 2004, said yesterday that it would ask the I.R.S. to allow that money to be credited as the Sept. 15 payment. More companies have sought waivers from the agency in recent years as their pension liabilities have mounted. Under federal law, the I.R.S. can give a company up to five years to make up the payments it owes for a single year. But an extension does not excuse a company from its contributions in any of the succeeding years. And in return, the I.R.S. is likely to ask the airline for some type of collateral to secure the waiver. For example, Northwest Airlines received a waiver worth $454 million, allowing it to stretch its 2003 pension contributions over five years beginning last April. But it had to pledge slots, international routes, aircraft and engines as security to lessen the burden to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in the event it would have to pay pensions if the airline were to be declared bankrupt. UAL Corporation's United Airlines also asked the Internal Revenue Service last year for waivers on overdue contributions to its employee pension plans, saying it could not afford to make the payments and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Congress subsequently passed legislation that allowed major airlines to stretch out the payments, and United withdrew its waiver request, as did Northwest Airlines, which had asked for a second series of waivers valued at $472.3 million. But United said last month that it would not make its required pension contributions to four plans while it remained under bankruptcy protection, and it is considering terminating the plans. The airline maintains it cannot obtain financing to emerge from bankruptcy given its pension shortfall, which the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which oversees the nation's pension plans, estimates at $8.3 billion. On Friday, the agency asked the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, which is overseeing United's case, to block the airline's efforts to forgo its pension contributions. The Air Line Pilots Association joined United's flight attendants and its machinists union yesterday in opposing United's request for more time to draft a restructuring plan. The airline holds the exclusive right to do so through Aug. 30. In a statement, the pilots union said giving United that much more time "would silence the voices of pilots and other employees who are major stakeholders in United's reorganization." The statement added, "It is unacceptable for the company to have exclusive control over a program designed to confront pilots with end-of-the-line pressure tactics aimed at our pension plan, along with other drastic cost-cutting." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/business/17air.html?ex=1093775091&ei=1&en=3710550ce20bad33 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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