Of Counsel 
Email:
jarnason@klestadt.com
Tel: 212.972.3000
Fax: 212.972.2245
Cell: 917.238.3807
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With over 25 years experience in bankruptcy law, Mr. Arnason chiefly represents secured creditors and lessors. With extensive experience in the airline industry, he has been involved in nearly all of the major airline bankruptcies since 1989, including: ATA, Avianca, USAir I and II, United Airlines, Atlas Air, Trans World Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Continental Airlines, Pan American World Airways, America West, Frontier Airlines, Tower Air, Lapa Airlines, Varig Airlines and Philippine Airlines. Mr. Arnason has also been involved in out-of-court restructurings of airlines, including American and Delta and represented the Fokker trustees in the wind-up of its business. Mr. Arnason has also been involved in a number of maritime bankruptcies and workouts, as well as representation of secured creditors in other areas of commerce.
The clients which Mr. Arnason has represented in the airline and maritime bankruptcies and restructuring include: International Lease Finance Corporation, GE Capital Aviation Services, debis Air Finance, The Exim Bank, United Technologies Finance Corporation, The Chase Manhattan Bank, den Norske Bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein.
Mr. Arnason speaks frequently on airline bankruptcy and restructuring issues, including Section 1110. He has been the co-chair of the American Conference Institute seminar on airline restructuring (the only conference in the world devoted exclusively to this topic), and has also spoken about bankruptcy and restructuring at conferences on air finance sponsored by Euromoney, the Strategic Research Institute and the Institute for International Research.
Mr. Arnason is a graduate of Harvard College and has a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.