NEW ARTICLE: By Judy Rife Times Herald-Record
Post# of 41413
By Judy Rife
Times Herald-Record
STEWART AIRPORT – An aspirational airline with no planes and no track record is poised to rebrand itself and come to Stewart International Airport, where it eventually plans to offer passenger flights to Europe.
The airline, founded as Baltia Air Lines in 1989, will ask shareholders Thursday to change its name to USGlobal Airways Inc. and to approve a reverse split of its over-the-counter stock (BLTA). The special meeting is being held at Stewart.
In its proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the changes would provide “a new identity moving forward” and “enhance the acceptability and marketability” of common stock that has been trading for a fraction of a penny.
Over the past 18 months, Baltia’s founder, Igor Dmitrowsky, has died, and its vice president for finance, Barry Clare, has faced SEC charges of acting as an unregistered broker for sales of the company’s stock – its sole source of revenue.
“In the last six months, the company has put together a new team with aviation backgrounds and is really moving forward,″ said John Lampl, vice president of corporate communications and part of that new team. “It’s starting to become a real airline.”
Lampl said Baltia has applied for the necessary certification to operate from the Federal Aviation Administration and signed a letter of intent to lease new Boeing 767s from Kalitta Air, a cargo carrier based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich.
The reorganized airline wants to fly to unserved or underserved European cities from Stewart. Lampl said destination specifics won’t be finalized until Baltia’s FAA certification is in hand but added the company’s chairman, president and CEO, Anthony Koulouris, will expand on this subject at a press conference following Thursday’s board meeting.
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170508/air...pe-flights