Air ticket consolidator Mondee Holdings files Chapter 11

Air ticket consolidator Mondee Holdings has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 

The company, whose consolidator brands include Hari World, Transam, Skylink, Cosmopolitan and C&H, plans to continue normal operations during a restructuring process. 

“For us and the trade and the airlines, it’s business as usual,” vice president of sales Lali Kumar said in an interview. 

Mondee dropped off the Nasdaq exchange in early December, ending a short 17-month stint as a publicly traded company. 

In an announcement, Mondee said it hopes to exit Chapter 11 early in the second quarter. The company has entered into an agreement to sell its assets to a newly formed entity that will be backed by Los Angeles-based TWC Asset Management Company and by the finance firm Wingspire Capital. If the restructuring is approved by the court, company chair and founder Prasad Gundumogula will have a 75% stake in Mondee and resume the position he long held as CEO. Gundumogula is currently Mondee’s largest shareholder, the bankruptcy filing shows. 

Mondee said the restructuring “will strengthen the company’s balance sheet and position it for long-term success.” 

The company’s existing secured lenders, it said, have committed an additional $27.5 million in operating capital to support the restructuring process, along with another $21.5 million in financing. 

Along with being a leading U.S. air consolidator, Mondee has holdings in the tour operator and corporate travel management businesses. The Austin-based company has offices in Canada, India, Brazil, Mexico, Greece, Egypt and China. 

Kumar said Mondee is building new technology products to be rolled out in the next few months, even as it enters Chapter 11. The company’s online and app-based technology platform, called Mondee Marketplace, includes an AI travel assistant tool called Abhi.  

Mondee has total assets of $362.8 million and total debt of $358.7 million, according to its Chapter 11 petition.