Airlines are in a tight squeeze right now.  How would you like to fill those gas tanks up each week?  Several airlines just threw in the towel.   Aloha, ATA and Skybus just stopped flying.  It looked like a nightmare for travelers on the evening news but how are the employee's faring?   Here's an update on the pension plan for Aloha:

Aloha Airlines employees who lost their jobs two weeks ago may be $50 million short in their pensions, according to testimony before a congressional committee Thursday.

Vincent Snowbarger, deputy director for operations of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., said his backstop organization had taken over three of Aloha’s four defined benefit pension plans in its 2004 bankruptcy. They cover 4,000 workers and retirees.

The obligations of the three funds are estimated to eventually reach $346 million, but they were only 51 percent funded.

PBGC can make up $119 million of the shortfall, but $50 million will be lost.

Snowbarger predicted that PBGC would be taking over more airline pension plans. It already has had to rescue several, including those of four of the six major American carriers when they went through bankruptcy in the past few years.

Courtesy MauiNews.com