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Regional carrier Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which warned over the summer that it could be forced to file for bankruptcy-court protection if it couldn’t solve its pressing pilot hiring and retention challenges, said Tuesday that a majority of its 2,100 aviators approved a new three-year labor contract that significantly raises pay and improves work rules, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The pact, which will go into effect in a few days, will succeed the current contract, which hadn’t been updated in eight years. The new deal lifts starting first-officer pay to $40 an hour, raises pay for other first officers and boosts captain pay. Indianapolis-based Republic said it would invest about $50 million a year over the three-year duration of the new contract, including signing bonuses and anniversary bonuses.

Stock in Republic Airways Holdings Inc. soared 82 percent after the company reached a tentative agreement with its pilots union that eases concerns of a possible bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg News reported today. Terms of the three-year contract weren’t immediately disclosed in yesterday’s statement from the airline and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The accord now goes to a ratification vote by Republic’s 2,100 pilots. Republic said in August that it might be forced into court-supervised restructuring because the lack of a contract was contributing to a pilot shortage.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. jumped the most among U.S. airlines after federal mediators set a Sept. 16 meeting that may rekindle contract negotiations with the carrier’s pilots union and help avoid a bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg News reported today. The National Mediation Board asked both sides yesterday to attend the session in Washington, D.C., where the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 357 will give the regional carrier its latest counterproposal, said union local President James Clark. The union declined to allow members to vote on Republic’s last offer. “If we can negotiate, we’ll start” after presenting the union plan at the meeting, Clark said. “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It really depends on what the company does.” Republic said it will attend the meeting in Washington.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. shares almost erased a decline after the airline’s pilot union said it was ready to resume talks on a contract, easing investor concern of a possible bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The regional carrier has said a court-supervised restructuring is an option if a new contract isn’t secured. The shares had plunged as much as 32 percent after Teamsters General President James Hoffa refused to overturn a decision by Local 357 negotiators to skip a vote on the latest offer, which Republic had called a “final” one. Local 357 “is ready to resume negotiations” with Republic to reach an agreement as soon as possible, union President James Clark told members yesterday.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. may be moving closer to a possible bankruptcy after national Teamster officials backed a local pilot union’s decision against voting on the carrier’s final contract offer Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Teamsters “will not take the extraordinary step of ordering an election over the unanimous and emphatic objections of Local 357’s democratically elected local leadership,” General President James Hoffa said in a letter yesterday to Local 357. Republic shares plunged in late trading on the Teamsters’ decision, because the airline has said it might be forced into a court-supervised restructuring if a new contract isn’t secured. A chapter 11 filing is one possibility, Matt Koscal, vice president of human resources at Republic, said on Aug. 21.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc.’s future was in doubt after the local pilots’ union recommended against allowing members to vote on the carrier’s contract offer, Bloomberg News reported today.  The leadership of the Teamsters’ local is objecting to language in the contract preventing it from encouraging members from taking positions at other regional airlines, Local 357 President Jim Clark said. The national union could override the local’s decision and present it to members, he said. The lack of an agreement is one reason behind a pilot shortage that Republic has warned threatens the company’s future. The alternative to an accord is court-supervised restructuring, said Matt Koscal, vice president of human resources for the carrier, which makes regional flights for larger airlines.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc., struggling with a pilot shortage as it works to reach a new contract, said the company may have to seek bankruptcy protection if its latest labor proposal fails, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. While the regional airline wants to secure an agreement, the alternative is court-supervised restructuring, said Matt Koscal, vice president of human resources. Chapter 11, which protects a company from creditors while it reorganizes, is one possible type of restructuring, Koscal said on Friday. “That’s not what we’re focused on right now, but we feel it’s fair for us to explain to all our employee groups where we stand as an organization,” Koscal said. “The status quo is no longer an option.” Koscal’s comments amplified an online letter to pilots in which eight Republic executives said a contract rejection would force it to consider “non-consensual restructuring.” The language was the strongest yet from Indianapolis-based Republic in urging approval of a deal after talks dating to 2007.

Skymark Airlines Inc.’s creditors will vote tomorrow on competing rehabilitation plans that will determine whether the carrier will be backed by a Japanese airline or an American one in its return from bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported today. Creditors will meet in Tokyo to choose between a plan from Skymark that envisions ANA Holdings Inc., owner of Japan’s biggest airline, as sponsor, or one from Skymark’s largest creditor that relies on the backing of Delta Air Lines Inc. To pass, a plan must be approved both by a majority of creditors and by creditors who hold more than 50 percent of Skymark’s debts. A plan that fulfills just one of the conditions will be rescheduled for another vote within two months.

American Airlines Group Inc. on Wednesday will ask a judge if it can distribute more than $230 million in stock it had set aside for claims disputes in its predecessor’s chapter 11 case, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Lawyers for AMR Corp., the prior iteration of American, say that the reserve fund to pay off the disputed claims would still contain more than $290 million in stock. The money would go to those who held the company’s equity before it merged with US Airways Group Inc. In addition to the approximately $237 million coming from the main disputed claims reserve, the old equity holders will also get $73.1 million in stock from funds set aside to ensure unions get 23.6 percent of all claims, which was part of the bankruptcy agreement.