Sabre Seeks to Pursue Antitrust Claims Against American
December 11, 2011, 2:58 PM ESTBy Sophia Pearson
(Updates with excerpt from filing in third paragraph.)
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Sabre Holdings Corp. asked a judge to modify the so-called automatic stay in American Airlines’ bankruptcy so it can pursue counterclaims against the carrier in an antitrust dispute.
Sabre said in its filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York that AMR Corp.’s American doesn’t oppose the request.
“To enforce the automatic stay would permit American to use the stay as a sword, not a shield, in litigation crucial to both American and Sabre,” Sabre said in the filing.
American sued Travelport Ltd. and Orbitz Worldwide Inc., the operators of electronic reservations systems, in April accusing them of monopolizing the distribution of fare and flight data to travel agents. Sabre, the largest U.S.-based global fare data distribution system, was added as a defendant in June.
Trials had already been scheduled by the state and federal courts for next year in the antitrust lawsuits when American filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. Sabre, based in Southlake, Texas, filed antitrust counterclaims before the bankruptcy.
Although American is permitted under bankruptcy law to continue pursuing its affirmative claims, the automatic stay precludes Sabre from going ahead with its counterclaims.
The bankruptcy court will hold a hearing to decide whether Sabre can continue with its half of the suits.
AMR, based in Fort Worth, Texas, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on Nov. 29, listing assets of $24.7 billion and debt totaling $29.6 billion.
The case is In re AMR Corp., 11-15463, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
--With assistance from Bill Rochelle in New York. Editors: Stephen Farr, Andrew Dunn
To contact the reporter on this story: Sophia Pearson in Philadelphia at spearson3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
