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- BUSINESS, Page 80Business NotesAIRLINESRound Trip To Bankruptcy
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- When Braniff airlines suddenly canceled virtually all its 256
- daily flights last Wednesday, many customers must have had a
- sinking sense of deja vu. Just five years after the airline emerged
- from a two-year bout with Chapter 11, Braniff said it was filing
- for bankruptcy protection once again. The company's decision seemed
- all the more abrupt because only last May it moved its headquarters
- from Dallas to Orlando and ordered 50 new Airbus A320 jetliners for
- $2 billion.
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- Braniff's bullish executives had hoped to find a niche for the
- midsize airline by developing a hub at the Kansas City airport, an
- opening that was created by a retrenchment at bankrupt Eastern
- Airlines. But Braniff's business failed to grow fast enough to
- support its debt payments. When a recent bridge financing deal for
- $75 million fell through, Braniff was strapped for cash. The
- bankrupt airline, which has laid off 2,800 of its 4,800 employees,
- hopes to rebuild slowly.