APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — Are two airline-based credit unions that Wings Financial Credit Union had previously contacted as possible merger candidates still on the financial institution's radar?
A recent search on the Internet name registration site godaddy.com revealed that FAAFirstWings.com and AlaskaHorizonWings.com were re-registered on Dec. 4, 2007 with an expiration date of Dec. 4, 2008. The $291 million FAAFirst FCU and $48 million Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Employees FCU confirmed with Credit Union Times in March 2007 that both had been approached by $1.8 billion Wings Financial about merging. Both credit unions turned down the proposals.
Wings Financial Spokesman Jon Austin said the recent domain registrations were automatically renewed: "Like most domains, those were set up to auto-renew and did," he said, adding "I'll guess that it auto-renews on an annual basis and that when the current period expires–sounds like in December 2008–they'll decide what to do then."
At press time, the registration information on godaddy.com had not changed.
In April 2007, a Wings Financial spokesman confirmed that one of its employees had registered a Web site with the domain name FAAFirstWings.com on Dec. 4, 2006. That registration was set to expire on Dec. 4, 2007. The domain name was created by Brent Andersen, who was listed as the Minnetonka, Minn.-based registrant, administrative contact, and technical contact. AlaskaHorizonWings.com was also registered on the same day with Andersen also listed as the contact.
Wings Financial made headlines in March 2007 when it conducted what some described as a "hostile takeover" of $178 million Continental Federal Credit Union. The same day Wings Financial sent its merger proposal to Continental FCU in March, it launched continentalwings.com, a site that included an online petition for Continental FCU members to sign urging Continental FCU's board to enter into merger discussions. The site is still up and running today but was changed to court Continental Airline employees.
After NCUA ruled that the $200 payments Wings Financial would give to Continental FCU's members should a merger go through were impermissible under the Federal Credit Union Act, Wings Financial ended its merger campaign. It soon shifted gears by partnering with Eos Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Sun Country Airlines, and Colgan Air to serve those carriers' employees.
Several calls to FAAFirst FCU and Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Employees FCU seeking comment were not returned.
–msamaad@cutimes.com
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