The story
In 1989, a Group of Marriot's upper management together with Carlyle acquired the business from Marriott Corporation which sold its In-Flite Services catering business. Carlyle took a 50% stake, committing $93.8 million. The business was renamed Caterair and the investment was funded primarily by a massive issuance of junk bond financing, as was the trend at that time.
By 1991, the company had contracts with 48 air carriers in 28 cities include Virgin Atlantic at Boston’s Logan, All Nippon at JFK in New York, and Aerolineas Argentinas at Miami’s airport.
With the global economy spiralling into recession during the early 1990s, the airline business faltered, and with it did Caterair. It eventually defaulted on its debt obligations during 1994. Hence, it was later dubbed CraterAir, by Wall Street analysts.
Caterair was sold by Carlyle to the Canadian private equity firm, Onex Corporation, in September 1995 which merged it with its other acquisition LSG/Sky Chef.
From Wikipedia’s article on Caterair, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3