Kitty Hawk completes purchase of trucking company

Kitty Hawk completes purchase of trucking company    The parent company of all-cargo airline Kitty Hawk Cargo said it has completed the acquisition of Air Container Transport, a San Francisco-based provider of less-than-truckload trucking service on the West Coast.
   The acquisition is part of Kitty Hawk’s strategy to expand into the deferred ground transportation market for customers who do not need the company’s overnight air service. Kitty Hawk began building a nationwide LTL service serving 46 cities in late October and formed Kitty Hawk Ground in April as a new subsidiary to manage the growing ground network.
   Kitty Hawk paid $5 million in cash and stock for ACT, which focuses operations on the Interstate 5 corridor from Southwest Canada to San Diego. Under the transaction, the Dallas-based freight transport company picked up ACT’s fleet of about 150 owned, leased and owner-operated trucks and assumed customer contracts. Company officials said ACT only duplicates 25 to 30 percent of Kitty Hawk’s existing customer base.
   ACT had revenues of $44.5 million in 2005.