KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - Hooters restaurant may be taking to the skies soon. <br>
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A group headed by the owner of the Atlanta-based Hooters restaurant chain offered to buy some of the assets of bankrupt Vanguard Airlines Friday. <br>
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Hooters Air LLC is led by Hooters of America chairman and owner Robert H. Brooks. He hopes to restart the Kansas City-based discount carrier as Hooters Air Incorporated. <br>
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Hooters Air would not reveal details about the plan. But Hooters spokesman Mike McNeil says the figure would be a ``very small part of the overall funding'' to restart the airline. <br>
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All of Vanguard's airplanes were leased, but Hooters plans to buy assets such as airplane parts, ground equipment, furniture and fixtures. <br>
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A spokeswoman for Vanguard did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday. <br>
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A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City on a request from Vanguard to sell about $4.6 million in assets -- some of which Hooters Air wants to buy. <br>
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Hooters Air already has given Vanguard about $50,000 per week since mid-August to maintain a skeleton staff while it considered whether to buy the assets of the low-fare carrier. Vanguard shut down and filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection on July 30. <br>
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Hooters Air says it hoped to use former Vanguard employees to build the new airline. More than a thousand workers were laid off when Vanguard closed. <br>
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The new airline would fly about five of Vanguard's current routes, with more to be added later. Vanguard had served 18 cities.
