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Mesaba completes takeover of Big Sky Airlines

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – – A subsidiary of Mesaba Holdings Inc., a Minneapolis-based regional air carrier, has completed its purchase of Big Sky Airline.

Associated Press Billings Gazette

Mesaba announced Monday that its Ranger Acquisition Corp. has completed its purchase of all outstanding shares of the Billings-based airline’s common stock, at $2.60 per share.

Mesaba, affiliated with Northwest Airlines, announced in September that it planned to buy Big Sky for about $3.5 million in cash. Before the announcement, the stock was selling for 50 cents a share on the Pacific Stock Exchange.

"We’re very excited about it," Big Sky president and CEO Kim Champney said Monday. "We’ve worked on this for several months, and this is just the final step."

The merger assures good financial stability and prospects for expansion, Champney said.

He reiterated that the sale would not affect Big Sky’s service, and the company headquarters would remain in Billings.

The acquisition also will have no effect on Big Sky’s contract with the federal government to provide service to several small, rural towns, Champney said. The company will submit a proposal this week to renew that contract, he said.

Big Sky serves cities in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Washington, Colorado and Idaho using Fairchild Metro III, 19-seat aircraft. The airline has codeshare agreements with Northwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines and Horizon Airlines.

Mesaba Holdings’ regional airline, Mesaba Airlines, serves 106 cities in 24 states and Canada from Northwest’s and Mesaba’s three major hubs, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Memphis. Mesaba operates 69 passenger Avro RJ85 and the 30-34 passenger Saab SF340.

Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/12/03/build/business/t-mesaba-bigsky.inc

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