An evaluation process described as “exhaustive” concluded that being based out of offices in Minnesota represented the best overall value for the business going forward.
“We had the responsibility to explore every aspect of our business to find opportunities to reduce costs, including evaluating our property leases, to find the most economical options for Pinnacle,” explained John Spanjers, president and chief executive of the company.
Spanjers thanked the governor of Tennessee and his colleagues in a statement for their efforts to find potentially viable headquarters for the airline in Memphis, where Pinnacle employs close 500 people across 170,000 sq ft of office space.
Current expectations are that the move to Minnesota will be completed before the end of the first half of 2013.
“This is a significant milestone in our restructuring and represents substantial progress that we expect will allow us to continue down a path toward successfully emerging from bankruptcy,” said Spanjers.
Pinnacle will leave behind its offices at One Commerce Square in central Memphis and settle in to offices that were formerly leased by the Delta Air Lines company. The offices are close to the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.
In all, Pinnacle has a workforce numbering more than 5,000 and has what it calls “hub operations” in cities across America including Atlanta, Detroit and New York.
Editor’s Notes: At the time that we published this article (in January 2013), Pinnacle Airlines Corporation had the benefit of bankruptcy protection after filing for it in April 2012.
In May 2013, the company emerged from Chapter 11 reorganisation as a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, with Pinnacle Airlines being renamed Endeavor Air.
The corporate headquarter offices of Endeavour Air remain at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis.