Almeda/Jetran Int'l

[LN-MOW]

Siden jeg allerede har brukt saa mye tid paa aa 'ufarliggjoere' US Marshal-flyet paa Sola, tenkte jeg at jeg kanskje skulle vri meg litt rundt og finne ut litt av bakgrunnen bak flyet og eierskapet. Stavanger Aftenblad kaller flyet statseid. Det er ikke korrekt. I FAA's register staar 'Almeda Corp Trustee' med adresse San Antonio, Texas, oppfoert som eier. Samme selskap staar oppfoert som eier av 109 jetfly, for det meste DC-9, 737-200 og MD-80. De fleste av disse staar oppfoert som deregistrert og er enten kappet opp eller parkert i en eller annen oerken.

Det er lite info aa finne om Almeda, annet enn at DC-8-63 mener aa ha sett navnet paa et kart over selskaper som samarbeider med 'Aero Contractors LTD'. Men paa samme adresse finnes Jetran International - et selskap som spesialiserer seg paa salg, leasing og delesalg.
http://www.jetraninternational.com/index.html
CEO i Jetran er Morris Douglas Jaffe Jr. Han er nevnt i en bok som heter The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush. (New York: S.P.I. Books (Shapolsky Publishers), 1992. 418 pages, author: Pete Brewton, ISBN 1-56171-203-5 )

''Beginning in 1990, an assortment of articles from the Houston Post found their way into NameBase. In them Pete Brewton described organized crime and CIA connections surrounding the major players in the savings and loan failures, primarily in Texas but also in Florida and California. Brewton met with resistance, first from the Post's lawyers and then, when he expanded the series into a manuscript, from Simon & Schuster. Brewton quit the Post, enrolled in law school, and took his manuscript elsewhere.

The Post series and book are loaded with names of Texas-size wheeler- dealers, but it's circumstantial. There's a little bit on Lloyd Bentsen and sons, a bit more on George Bush and sons, even more on slick operators who appear to be CIA assets, and more still on Mafia-connected deals that involve property flipping as a cover for fraudulent loan schemes using federally-insured funds (your tax dollars). The names come from the records of state and federal agencies and courts, as well as newspaper clippings. The book's title is misleading, as the book itself leaves the impression that this is all business-as-usual for greedy Texans. But unless NAFTA returns the territory to Mexico, where certain Banana Republic of Texas businesses might have more room to deal, it's worthwhile trying to track these fun folks. In that sense, Brewton's contribution is significant.''

I 'Airline Business' fant jeg dette om hvordan etran ble startet:

''San Antonio businessman Doug Jaffe and Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. have teamed to buy 90 jets US Airways took out of operation in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Jaffe's and Wyatt's newly formed Jetran International Ltd. will lease or sell the planes to overseas airlines. Jaffe wouldn't disclose the purchase price for the jets but said customers in Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean already are putting in orders for them to replace aging fleets. Jetran will find buyers for 60 percent of the planes within the next year, he added. "These airplanes are not even at their midlife," Jaffe said. "They're programmed to continue flying for a number of years. They're very desirable to an airline wanting to replace older planes." Jaffe, a real-estate investor, has bought and sold planes for years through his firm Comtran International Inc. He formed Jetran with Wyatt, founder of Houston-based energy giant Coastal Corp., specifically to purchase the US Airways planes. The deal, which closed this week, was part of a US Airways effort to unload 97 jets it pulled from use after last fall's dramatic drop in air travel. US Airways hasn't identified the company that purchased the other seven aircraft. Officials with the Arlington, Va.-based airline were unavailable Friday for comment on the transaction. Included in Jetran's purchase were 49 Boeing 737-200s, 25 McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and 16 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, Jaffe said. All the planes are narrow-body passenger aircraft. Although Jetran is headquartered in San Antonio, it will store the planes at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Jetran is on the lookout for other opportunities to buy idled jets, but is unlikely to strike any more deals the size of its transaction with US Airways, Jaffe said. Most airlines grounded portions of their fleets as the terrorist attacks and slow economy slashed into air travel, but none pulled as many from operation as US Airways, he said. "US Airways had too many planes," Jaffe said. "They had 425, which made them the fourth-largest airline in terms of equipment, but they were only the 12th or 13th in terms of revenues." ''

Dette selskapet har et 'distriktskontor' i Washington DC, og presidenten der heter Stuart Peebles. Han ser ut til aa vaere hjernen bak selskapet. Han kom fra jobben som president i USAirways' leasingselskap, Her er et utsnitt fra en interessant artikkel i Forbes ('Jet Vultures').

Stuart Peebles quit his job as president of US Airways Leasing and Sales one year ago and bought 90 737s, MD-80s and DC-9s after Texas businessmen Oscar Wyatt and Douglas Jaffe backed him with $100 million. Peebles now runs Jetran International, a company with a parts warehouse in Miami the size of two football fields and a team of engineers, pilots and mechanics in Romania. Five years ago 737-200s sold for $5.5 million, $4 million more than today's prices. "The buyers look at these and say, 'This aircraft is going to last me maybe five years, and at that price, this is a good deal,'" Peebles says.

http://www.forbes.com/global/2003/0609/026.html

Dette er linken til Romania. Selskapet er Romaero.
http://www.romaero.ro/

Men annet enn referansen til Jaffe (som jeg ikke vet omhandler) og Peebles' adresse i Washington, er det ingenting som linker Almeda/Jetstar til CIA eler noe annet. Men selvfoelgelig - en business som dette er ingen daarlig front.

Uhh .. dette ble mye .. hvis noen har noe aa tilfoye (link til Tor Tjoentvedt, kanskje?), er det bare aa bygge videre.