DALLAS -- Kitty Hawk Inc., the world's largest air-only freight carrier, said yesterday that it will sell and lease its fleet of seven jTC Convair turboprop airplanes in an effort to cut costs.
Kitty Hawk plans to lease five aircraft to an unidentified company, with an option to buy, for about $3 million. It will sell two planes for about $1.5 million in cash.
High costs at its passenger-service unit led the Dallas-based company to begin a cost-cutting program, and it may abandon passenger flights. Kitty Hawk said this month that it would ground two airplanes used for passenger flights as it concentrates on its main air-cargo business.
"The [cost-cutting program] is proceeding more slowly than we had originally hoped," Kitty Hawk Chairman and Chief Executive Tom Christopher said in a statement. "Our top priority is to implement these controls as quickly as possible."
Pub Date: 12/25/98
