Pinnacle Airlines Corporation was an American

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 ...

headquartered in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

, and was the

parent 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 ...

Pinnacle Airlines Endeavor Air is an American regional airline that operates as Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. The airline was founded as Express Airlines I in 1985 and was renamed Pinnacle Airlines in 2002. In 2012, Pinnacle's parent company filed for Chap ...

and

Colgan Air Colgan Air was an American certificated regional airline subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. The headquarters of Colgan Air were located in Memphis, Tennessee. Colgan Air operated for Continental Express/United Express, and US Airways Expres ...

until Colgan was closed down in 2012. The company contracted its airlines to fly in the

aircraft livery An aircraft livery is a set of comprehensive insignia comprising color, graphic, and typographical identifiers which operators (airlines, governments, air forces and occasionally private and corporate owners) apply to their aircraft. As aircraft ...

of other airlines such as

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along ...

and

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

. The company filed for bankruptcy protection under

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 ...

in 2012 and emerged from Chapter 11 in 2013 as a wholly owned subsidiary of

. The company's only surviving airline, Pinnacle, became Endeavor Air.

History

In the late 1990s,

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 ...

owned a subsidiary, Express Airlines I, Inc., that it wanted to break off as a separate entity. Pinnacle Airlines Corporation was created in January 2002 to hold the airline, which would be renamed Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. The changes took place on May 8, 2002. In November 2003, Pinnacle Airlines Corporation became a publicly traded company, using the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

PNCL on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. In 2007, Pinnacle acquired

, which continued to operate independently of Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. The acquisition of Colgan Air was a $20 million strategic move in order to gain access to Colgan’s partners,

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started ...

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

and

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon ...

. On July 1, 2010, Delta Air Lines sold

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 ...

to Pinnacle in a $62 million transaction. Mesaba's fleet consisted of 41 CRJ-900s, 18 CRJ-200s, and several Saab 340 aircraft. After acquisition, Pinnacle merged all three subsidiary airlines into one. All pilots flying for Mesaba and Colgan eventually became pilots for Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. On 1 April 2012, Pinnacle Airlines Corporation and subsidiaries filed for

bankruptcy protection Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

under

of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The airline subsidiaries discontinued all operations of Saab 340 and Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft by the end of November 2012. On May 1, 2013, Pinnacle Airlines Corporation emerged from chapter 11 reorganization as a wholly owned subsidiary of

. The company's main airline, Pinnacle Airlines, Inc., was renamed to Endeavor Air on August 1, 2013 and the holding company ceased to exist. On September 27, 2018, former Pinnacle Airlines CEO Philip Trenary was shot dead in Memphis.

Headquarters

Pinnacle Airlines Corp. had their headquarters in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

, near the airport, inking a 13-year lease to become the anchor tenant in the 29-story office tower. In 2010 Pinnacle Airlines Corp. considered moving its headquarters to

Downtown Memphis Downtown Memphis, Tennessee is the central business district of Memphis, Tennessee and is located along the Mississippi River between Interstate 40 to the north, Interstate 55 to the south and I-240 to the east, where it abuts Midtown Memphis. It ...

and to

Olive Branch, Mississippi Olive Branch is a city in DeSoto County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population is 39,711. Olive Branch is part of the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region that consists of three counties in southwest T ...

in Greater Memphis. Pinnacle selected One Commerce Square in Downtown Memphis. The Center City Commission, the City of Memphis, and Shelby County gave out $10 million in incentives, including free parking, to convince Pinnacle to move to Downtown Memphis.Risher, Wayne.
Pinnacle's decision to move Downtown lifts hopes for other development
" ''

The Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, als ...

''. October 8, 2010. Retrieved on October 8, 2010.

References

External links

Pinnacle Airlines Corp.
(Archive) {{Airline holding companies of the United States Airline holding companies of the United States Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee