AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI), the parent of AirTran Airways, announced today that it has submitted preliminary proxy materials to the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to its previously announced intent to elect three nominees to fill positions on the Midwest Air Group, Inc. (“Midwest”) (AMEX: MEH) board of directors at Midwest’s next annual meeting of shareholders. The nominees are John Albertine, Jeffrey Erickson, and Charles Kalmbach.
“By electing these nominees, Midwest shareholders would be electing directors who are committed to acting in the shareholders’ best interests and to keeping the Board’s focus on maximizing shareholder value,” said Joe Leonard, AirTran’s chairman and chief executive officer. “The election of these three nominees would send a strong signal that the company’s ‘stay-the-course,’ ‘business-as-usual-strategy’ – multi-year losses, less service, fewer jobs, and lower wages for employees – is unacceptable. It says that, by continuing along that path, the Company is placing its employees, customers and communities, as well as its shareholders, at risk to the competitive pressures that are already threatening Midwest.”
“Having these excellent candidates as part of the Midwest Board of Directors would also help AirTran’s merger proposal to get a fair hearing in the boardroom, and deliver a message to management that it is in the shareholders’ interests to explore the merits of our offer– something that Midwest’s management has steadfastly refused to do,” Leonard added.
“Furthermore, Midwest’s existing corporate governance practices are seriously flawed and troubling to say the least. In particular, the extent to which the Board of Midwest is relying on the input from financial advisors who are provided an economic incentive if the AirTran-Midwest merger is rejected is hardly the way to explore all opportunities in order to maximize shareholder value. By contrast, the nominees we are putting forward would help to keep the directors focused on their fiduciary duties to act in the shareholders’ interest,” Leonard concluded.
In a related action, AirTran said that it is extending its Exchange Offer, due to expire on March 8, 2007, until April 11, 2007, at 12:00 midnight EDT. AirTran Airways said that it decided to extend its offer so that Midwest’s shareholders can receive all the information they need. AirTran was advised by The Bank of New York, the exchange agent for the offer, that, as of 5:00 p.m. EST, on March 7, 2007, a total of 1,777,638 shares of Midwest common stock were tendered pursuant to the offer.
