Luke Thompson
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Luke R Thompson (born August 13), an American, while a sophomore at Babson College, was sued along with his company Mainline Airways, a tour-operator, in June 2003 for selling travel through his company Mainline Airways LLC. Shortly upon the filing of the suit, the company declared that it was suspending its plans to begin service due to the "bad press created by the lawsuit" and canceled all pre-reservations and issued refunds due to the cancelation. Mainline Airways claims that it could not re-book passengers on Delta Airlines, with whom the company had an agreement with, because most customers had already put stop-payment orders on their credit card transactions after hearing the press. Thompson has remained enrolled at Babson College, and as of September 2004 will graduate next year with his bachelors' as well as Masters of Science (M.S.) degrees.
No declaration has been made by Thompson or another company official if or when Mainline Airways LLC will resume operations; the corporation remains in active status over a year after it discontinued sales and operations.
15 months after the suit was filed, a settlement was reached and approved on September 2nd 2004, which formally ordered Mainline to refund all customers; refunds had actually been provided in June 2003 but the company was not under court order until their settlement was approved 15 months later. The settlement also provides that no party admits wrongdoing or liability, and for no fine or other penalty to Thompson or Mainline, but that $5,000 would be paid in the event that the terms of the settlement are violated, including if refunds provided over a year earlier were incomplete or the engagement of pre-reservation charter sales where the name of the airline operating the service is not revealed at the time of purchase.
Prior to the settlement, Thompson and Mainline filed an answer indicating over 30 defenses and over 10 counterclaims alleging improprieties and perjury in documents filed with the court to obtain a restraining order restricting sales as well as misrepresenting the terms of the order in the plaintiff Thomas Reilly's press releases, which incorrectly stated that Reilly froze the company's assets and obtained an order to refund customers. The actual restraining order issued by the court did not order either of those actions and Thompson and Mainline demanded restitution for those errors. The settlement released all parties from liability and neither Mainline, Thompson, nor Reilly admitted wrongdoing of any kind.
According to IRS tax records, Thompson's company Mainline Airways posted a substantial loss in 2003 including forfeiting a $20,000 deposit on an aircraft charter contract. That aircraft owned by Tristar Capital LLC remained stored until early 2004 when it was used for filming in the new NBC series LAX, which premiered in September 2004.
Before college, he lived in Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania.