By Rose Ragsdale

Alaska Journal of Commerce

Is MarkAir as important to Alaska in 1995 as Chrysler was to America in 1979?

The answer to that question may dictate the future of the state's largest airline and its 1,800 employees.

Just as Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca sought $1 billion in loan guarantees from the federal government to keep the No. 3 automaker on the road 15 years ago, MarkAir chairman Neil Bergt is seeking $30 million to $40 million in financial assistance from the state to keep Alaska's sixth-largest private employer in the air.

Just as Chrysler met a storm of opposition from competitors and others who saw the automaker's request as outrageous, MarkAir is encountering similar turbulence.

And just as economic studies showed the feds would lose a lot more money by not aiding Chrysler, a study conducted this fall by the University of Alaska Institute for Social and Economic Research suggests that Alaskans would be a lot worse off without MarkAir in the air transportation sector and the overall economy.

"There are two things I would hope people would focus on - the airfares in Alaska today, as opposed to four years ago, are 40 percent less, and there are 2,200 people in Alaska who earn $64.5 million a year that depend on MarkAir for jobs," Bergt said in an interview Jan. 12.

"I don't want this to be a bailout for Neil Bergt," he said. "I would like it to be seen as helping the employees of MarkAir."

Bergt, who launched privately held MarkAir in 1984, is working with an employee group to structure a reorganization proposal that includes giving the airline's employees a substantial ownership stake in the company. The employee stock ownership plan would be funded with a state-backed loan of at least $30 million and collateralized with a 10 percent pay cut that most MarkAir employees have already taken or agreed to take.

Bergt said MarkAir needs cash to solve a liquidity problem that developed in 1991 when the company expanded into the Lower 48 market and Outside air carriers tried to run it out of business.