Payout justified fees says Liquidator

Liquidation fees in excess of $2 million were defended yesterday by the liquidator of failed airline Tasman Pacific Airways.

Jeff Meltzer said the payout would have been 3c to 6c if the liquidator had accepted all creditors' claims and not pursued directors.

"By incurring those expenses, we have achieved a net result of 15c after all of those costs," he said.

The company, which traded as Qantas New Zealand, failed in 2001 leaving 1500 creditors, including about 1000 staff, owed more than $130 million. That was reduced to $107 million and $16 million was recovered.

However, a creditor representative said the 15c in the dollar payout was miserable.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union southern regional operations director Ged O'Connell said the "miserable" dividend was as expected but at least it marked an end to the debacle.

"I imagine the employees are happy to have some final closure and move on. I suppose we're got to be grateful that in the last two or three years the economic environment has been at least favourable to them."

O'Connell said while the three-year process had been lengthy, at least the assets had been sold for reasonable prices rather than in a fire sale. It had also enabled directors to make a contribution.

Meltzer said a confidential settlement had been reached with the company's former directors and parent company Zazu. No legal action would be taken.

He would not say what the settlement involved.

Although some issues were outstanding, Meltzer believed the settlement would be completed early next year.