TWA Names New Chief to Pilot a Troubled Future : Airlines: The company, which hopes to emerge from bankruptcy this summer, is pinning its hopes on former Piedmont Aviation Chairman William Howard.

Trans World Airlines Inc. on Tuesday named former Piedmont Aviation Inc. Chairman William Howard its new chairman and chief executive.

Howard, 71, will head a 15-member board that represents TWA’s creditors, unions and management. His appointment will be effective when the airline emerges from bankruptcy.

The rest of the management team will include Robin Wilson and Glenn Zander, TWA’s co-chief executives since last fall.

The airline, which sought protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in January, 1992, hopes to emerge from bankruptcy late this summer. The confirmation hearing on its reorganization plan, scheduled for Thursday, was postponed Tuesday until Aug. 11.

Howard said in a statement he joined the airline in part because of its union’s commitment.

The reorganized airline will be 55% owned by its creditors, who will cancel about $1 billion of its debt. The remaining 45% will be owned by union employees in exchange for $220 million in annual wage and benefit concessions over three years.

“TWA will thus emerge from bankruptcy with an employee-stockholder work force like no other, running a quality airline that will be the envy of the industry,” Howard said.

Howard’s success at the former Piedmont Airlines, now part of USAir, was one of the reasons TWA’s creditors wooed him, industry observers said. He led Piedmont through the early years of industry deregulation.

TWA’s creditors hope Howard’s role will help attract investors and inspire confidence about the airline’s future, they said.

“Maybe Bill, with his marquee value, could attract new money,” said Scott Hamilton, editor of Dallas-based Commercial Aviation Report.

Michael Boyd of Aviation Systems Research in Golden, Colo., said the airline probably appointed Howard “to try to show the investment community that this airline is a strong player and they’ve hired the best they can.”

Howard’s success at Piedmont may not carry over to his new job, analysts said. TWA faces a number of obstacles, including the need to improve liquidity, an image tarnished under former Chairman Carl C. Icahn and a high cost structure, analysts said.

“Just because he did everything well at Piedmont, that doesn’t mean it’s going to translate over to TWA,” Boyd said. “That was then, this is now.”

Even with Howard at the helm, TWA faces a struggle attracting investors or obtaining bank lines of credit, Hamilton said.

“I haven’t heard about a revolving credit facility or about any liquidity program,” he said. “My views haven’t changed. They need to have substantially improved liquidity to have any success whatsoever at reorganization.”

Improved liquidity would buy TWA time to accomplish its restructuring, including updating its fleet, improving fleet utilization, and opening new, profitable routes, Hamilton said.

Howard was an attorney for Eastern Airlines before joining Piedmont in 1978 as a senior vice president. He led the airline’s expansion, including its profitable hub in Charlotte, N.C., and was named chairman in 1986.

He left Piedmont in August, 1987, before it was acquired by USAir in December of that year.