Wednesday, September 3, 2003

World Airways addresses stock issues

Peachtree City's World Airways, Inc., discussed its position regarding the recent insider stock trading and announced that Hollis Harris, chairman and CEO, has completed his selling for this trading period.

After the 2003 second quarter financial results were made public and the 10-Q Report was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Company noted that it was within "trading window" guidelines established by the company for insiders to sell some of their stock.The company expected that some members of the board, management and employees would sell some of their stock for several reasons:

Insiders have done virtually no selling for the last three years.

The company had instituted a salary exchange program, in which employees, including senior management, took a 10 percent pay cut to support World's restructuring and rebuilding efforts.

World's board of directors did not want to disallow employees from receiving some benefit from the recent stock price increase, especially in light of the pay cuts and the lack of selling over the last three years.

In order to ensure that any insider stock sales were handled in an orderly way, the board of directors requested that directors and executives limit their sales to no more than 20 percent of their individual holdings. To date, directors and executives have honored that request, and not all Company directors and executives have traded shares of World stock during this period. The company stated that directors, executives and employees are free to trade shares of World stock until September 16, 2003, the date that the current trading window will be closed, unless they have any material, non-public information.

Prior to this trading period, Harris owned approximately 1.33 million shares of World Airways stock and stock options. This included 1,062,498 vested stock options and 269,715 shares of common stock. A Form 144 was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 25, 2003, noting Harris' intent to sell 251,309 shares of World Airways stock. From August 19, 2003, until August 28, 2003, Harris sold 87,309 shares of World Airways stock ­ a total of less than 7% of his total holdings. He now has a total of about 1,245,000 shares of company stock and vested options.

Harris announced today that he will not engage in any further trading of World Airways stock for this trading period.

"I have been an active buyer of World Airways stock since I joined the company," said Harris. "However, I found it necessary to liquidate some of my holdings to satisfy some personal obligations. This is the first time I have sold any of my shares, and I will not engage in any additional trading of company stock for this trading window. I believe there is strong up-side potential in our market value, as we continue to expand our current business base and add new and diverse customers.

"Our position with regard to the recent trading is that our employees have helped turn this Company around and gotten us back on track to long-term profitability," he continued. "Due to our financial circumstances, we have not been able to give cost-of-living increases, or make substantial monetary awards. It is only appropriate for members of senior management to take advantage of the stock options and holdings they have accumulated over time and share the benefits of the recent stock price increase."

He added, "It is important to maintain a balance between supporting employees' periodic needs to sell their stock and raise cash for their personal needs with maintaining a strong insider position in the stock.Even factoring in the recent sales, company insiders hold approximately 19 percent of World Airways stock."

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