MAIR Holdings, Inc. ( NASDAQ: MAIR) was an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. Later in its life its headquarters were in Fifth Street Towers II in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. At an earlier time its headquarters were on the property of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and in Fort Snelling, an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapo ...

. It was established in 1993 as AirTran Corporation and was later renamed to Mesaba Holdings, Inc. The holding company served as the holding company for Mesaba Aviation, Inc., which operated

Mesaba Airlines Mesaba Aviation, Inc. (operating as Mesaba Airlines) was an American regional airline based in Eagan, Minnesota From 2010 to 2012 the airline was a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corporation with code sharing flights operated as De ...

. In 2002, MAIR also acquired Big Sky Transportation, Co., operator of Big Sky Airlines. Mesaba Airlines, which operated as a

Northwest Airlink Northwest Airlink was the brand name of Northwest Airlines' regional airline service, which flew turboprop and regional jet aircraft from Northwest's domestic hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis. Service was primarily to small-to-medium-siz ...

regional airline, filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy on October 13, 2005, a result of downsizing occasioned by the earlier bankruptcy of

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

. As part of the reorganization of both carriers, Northwest acquired Mesaba on April 24, 2007. This left Big Sky as MAIR's only remaining airline. Following a series of expansion attempts, Big Sky announced plans to cease operations in December 2007. The airline's last flights were on March 8, 2008. MAIR's shareholders voted to dissolve the company on June 25, 2008. The company's last day of trading on the NASDAQ was July 7, 2008, and its shares closed at a price of approximately $4.17. Shareholders as of that day received an initial cash distribution from the company of $3 per share in August, 2008, and subsequently received several

liquidating distribution A liquidating distribution (or liquidating dividend) is a type of nondividend distribution made by a corporation or a partnership to its shareholders during its partial or complete liquidation. Liquidating distributions are not paid solely out of ...

s as assets were sold and legal issues resolved: 70 cents per share was distributed in November, 2008; 55 cents per share in February, 2009; 12 cents per share in April, 2010; and a final distribution of 2.65 cents per share in July, 2012.

References

External links

MAIR Holdings
(Archive)

Great Lakes Aviation Western replacement carrier

Cape Air Northeast replacement carrier {{Airline holding companies of the United States Airline holding companies of the United States Regional Airline Association members Defunct companies based in Minneapolis Holding companies established in 1993