Supreme Court declines to re-open United Airlines bankruptcy case for its pilots pension claim

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a case the Air Line Pilots Association appealed to the court, trying to reverse the takeover of their pension plan by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. druing United Airlines' bankruptcy.

The pilots had already lost at the bankruptcy court level and again in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, both of which backed the PBGC, so this wasn't much of a surprise.

When the PBGC took over the plan in late 2004, the United Airlines' pilot pension plan was 49% percent funded, with $2.8 billion in assets to cover $5.7 billion in benefit liabilities, according to PBGC estimates.