By Jacqueline Palank
via The Wall Street Journal

Global Aviation Holdings Inc., which claims to be the largest commercial provider of airlift-transport services for the U.S. military, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday.

The Peachtree City, Ga., company, which also flies presidential candidates, said in court papers that U.S. troops’ withdrawal from Iraq and their anticipated withdrawal from Afghanistan, along with the sluggish global economy, have reduced demand for its cargo services. As a result, its revenues have declined while labor and other fixed costs remain high, it said.

“Although the company has worked closely with its lessors, bondholders and other creditors and constituents over the past year, which led to the reduction of certain obligations, the company needs to complete its comprehensive restructuring due to having too large a fleet, labor costs that exceed industry standards given the current global economic environment, and the necessity to align the capital structure with the size of the company,” Robert Binns, Global’s chairman and chief executive, said Sunday in a statement.

Global said that in Chapter 11, it plans to slash debt, reduce its work force, shed unnecessary aircraft, secure and expand government contracts and negotiate more-favorable labor agreements with unionized workers.

For example, Global, which leases all of its 30 aircraft, filed a motion to reject the leases to 16 of those planes, most of which have already been taken out of service. The company said doing so will allow it to save more than $40 million each year.

“The debtors entered into many of the aircraft leases when the United States military was at the height of two wars. The debtors anticipated that the excess aircraft would continue to be needed to service certain governmental contracts,” Global said. “These demands, however, have diminished and the excess aircraft is no longer necessary to the debtors’ operations.”

The aircraft leases the company is seeking to reject cover six McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freight planes, three MD-11 passenger planes, two Boeing 747 freight planes and five Boeing 757 passenger planes.

Global, whose work force currently numbers about 1,800, added it would continue normal operations as it restructures.

According to the company, the military doesn’t have the ability to transport all of its troops and cargo and therefore relies on U.S. commercial air carriers like Global to provide more than 90% of its passenger flights and meet 40% of its international air-cargo needs.

Global subsidiary World Airways was founded in 1948. In 1951, it provided its first supplemental airlift services for U.S. military serving in Korea.

Another Global subsidiary, North American Airlines, was founded in 1989 and also flies for the U.S. military. Based at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, North American additionally provides international and domestic charter services to U.S. corporations, entertainers, the White House press corps and the presidential campaigns of President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Global reported $594 million in assets and $495 million in liabilities as of Dec. 31. Its obligations, also as of Dec. 31, include $146.5 million in senior secured notes and $98.1 million on a second-lien term loan.

Global said its majority owner is MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC. The private-equity firm owns about 92.5% of the company, while another 5% is held by the company’s senior managers and other investors. Second-lien lenders own a 2.6% stake, Global said.

The company has hired bankruptcy attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis LLP to represent it in its restructuring and has tapped Rothschild as its financial adviser.

The bankruptcy case has been assigned to Judge Carla E. Craig of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Write to Jacqueline Palank at jacqueline.palank@dowjones.com

By Liz Dwyer, Education Editor
via www.good.is



With the unemployment rate hovering near the 10 percent mark—and hiring freezes and layoffs still the norm—an increasing number of college grads are turning to the one employer who’s always hiring, even in tough economic times: Uncle Sam. The number of bachelor’s degree holders enlisting in a branch of the United States Armed Services is on the rise.

Over the past two years, the Army’s seen the biggest spike in diploma-holding enlistees. In 2010, almost 6,000 college graduates signed up for duty, 2,000 more than in 2008 when the economy still seemed healthy. The Navy saw 1,425 college graduates enlist, up from 1,000 in 2008 and the Air Force bumped its college graduate enlistment up to 900 from 2008′s total of 553.

We may be at war, but Ben Harris, a political science and communications double major from Ohio State University, isn’t dwelling on the possibility of dying in combat. He graduated two years ago, and given the realities of the recession, he had to settle for a job at a “chicken-finger place” and shack up with his parents. Instead of heading off to graduate school to wait out the tough economy—and rack up more student loans—Harris told the Columbus Dispatch that he’s considering joining the Army or the Air Force because, “I’ll get more skills and more education.”

The perks—VA benefits, access to military base stores, preference for government jobs, and a reduction in student loans (the Army will repay up to $65,000 of a soldier’s qualifying student loans, the most of the armed services branches)—are undeniable. Plus, when you enlist with a bachelor’s degree, you enter as an officer, which means you receive higher pay.

The only branch to not see a significant enrollment bump is the Marines. According to Maj. John Caldwell, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, “Young men and women join our ranks to become a United States Marine. They do not see the Marine Corps as a path to something else but rather as a destination unto itself.”

photo (cc) via Flickr user Boston Public Library

via The Official Google Blog

The website Google for Veterans and Families brings together Google products and platforms for servicemembers and their families. We believe it will be useful to all veterans, whether still in the service, transitioning out, or on a new path in their civilian lives. Here are some examples of what you’ll find on the site:

VetConnect – This tool helps servicemembers connect, communicate and share their experiences with others who have served using the Google+ platform.

Google Veterans Channel – A YouTube channel for discussion about military service for veterans, their families and the public. Veterans can share their experiences with each other as well as with civilians to help shed light on the importance and complexity of service. If you have not served, this is a great place to offer your thanks by uploading a tribute video.

Resume Builder powered by Google Docs – We found that Docs can be a particularly helpful tool to transitioning servicemembers seeking employment. Resume Builder generates an auto-formatted resume that can be easily edited, saved and downloaded to share with potential employers.

Tour Builder powered by Google Earth (coming soon). A new way to tell your military story. Today, you can view some sample “tours”— 3D maps of veterans’ service histories, complete with photos and videos. Stay tuned for more details and updates on the Google Lat Long Blog.

This week, we introduced the Veterans Job Bank in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans Job Bank is a customized job search engine in the National Resource Directory (NRD), which is powered by Google Custom Search technology and crawls the web for JobPosting markup from Schema.org to identify veteran-committed job openings.