General Motors asks judge to void seven corporate jet leases

General Motors Corp, on its first day under court protection, asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to cancel leases for seven corporate jets and for an airport hangar at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

“The leases are not necessary or valuable to the debtors’ business activities or the sale process,” GM said on Monday in a filing in US Bankruptcy Court in New York.

GM’s former Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner, who was forced out in March, became a symbol of the failing US auto industry last year when he and other executives flew to Washington by corporate jet to ask for government aid. When Wagoner and other GM executives met with government officials in February, they flew on commercial airlines.

GM unsuccessfully tried to cancel some of the leases last year, Tom Wilkinson, a company spokesman, said on Monday in a phone interview.

GM, the largest carmaker until its 77-year reign ended last year, surpassed Chrysler LLC as the largest manufacturer to file for bankruptcy. Detroit-based GM plans to launch a new company in 60 to 90 days, armed with vehicles from its Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC units for the US market.

The case is In re General Motors Corp, 09-50026, US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District, New York (Manhattan).