DEBT

Debt as of December 31 and March 31, 2015 consisted of the following (in thousands):



	December 31, 2015			March 31, 2015
6¼% Senior Notes due 2022	$	401,535		$	401,535
Term Loan	339,138			222,179
Revolving Credit Facility	232,050			83,800
Term Loan Credit Facility	200,000			—
Airnorth debt	20,273			23,119
Eastern Airways debt	15,213			19,680
Other debt	14,794			—
3% Convertible Senior Notes due 2038, including zero and $0.9 million of unamortized discount, respectively	—			114,109
Total debt	1,223,003			864,422
Less short-term borrowings and current maturities of long-term debt	(47,243		)	(18,730		)
Total long-term debt	$	1,175,760		$	845,692

Term Loan Credit Facility — On November 5, 2015, we entered into a senior secured term loan credit agreement (“Term Loan Credit Agreement”) which provides for $200 million of term loan commitments (the “Term Loan Credit Facility”). Proceeds from the Term Loan Credit Facility were initially used to repay loans outstanding under our $400 million Revolving Credit Facility as discussed below. The additional liquidity was used for capital expenditures, working capital needs and general corporate purposes. The maturity date of the Term Loan Credit Facility is November 5, 2017 and the interest rate at closing was LIBOR plus a borrowing margin of 2.0%.

The Term Loan Credit Facility is guaranteed by certain of our U.S. subsidiaries (“Guarantor Subsidiaries”) and secured by the U.S. cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, inventories, non-aircraft equipment, prepaid expenses and other current assets, intangible assets and intercompany promissory notes held by the Company and the Guarantor Subsidiaries, and 100% and 65% of the capital stock of certain of our principal domestic and foreign subsidiaries, respectively. In addition, the Term Loan Credit Facility includes customary covenants, including certain financial covenants and restrictions on our ability to enter into certain transactions, including those that could result in the incurrence of additional indebtedness and liens; the making of loans, guarantees or investments; sale of assets; payments of dividends or repurchases of our capital stock; and entering into transactions with affiliates.

3% Convertible Senior Notes due 2038 — During June 2015, we repurchased $113.1 million of the $115.0 million principal amount of our 3% Convertible Senior Notes due 2038 (the “3% Convertible Senior Notes”) from holders that exercised their right to require us to repurchase their notes on the first put date of June 15, 2015. We funded this repurchase using borrowings on our Revolving Credit Facility. On July 13, 2015, we issued a notice to the holders of the remaining $1.9 million principal amount of notes that we were redeeming the remaining notes at a redemption price equal to 100% of the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest up to, but excluding, the redemption date of August 14, 2015. The notes were convertible at any time before the close of business on August 13, 2015, the business day immediately preceding the redemption date at a rate of 13.8373 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes. However, prior to the redemption of the remaining notes that occurred on August 14, 2015, the conversion value of the 3% Convertible Senior Notes did not exceed the principal balance so we satisfied our conversion obligation by delivering cash of $1.9 million.

The debt discount was amortized into interest expense over the expected remaining life of the 3% Convertible Senior Notes to June 2015 (the first put date) using the effective interest rate. The effective interest rate for the nine months ended December 31, 2015 and the three and nine months ended December 31, 2014 was 6.9%. Interest expense related to our 3% Convertible Senior Notes for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 was as follows (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended December 31,				Nine Months Ended December 31,
	2015		2014		2015		2014
Contractual coupon interest	$	—	$	862	$	725	$	2,588
Amortization of debt discount	—		1,054		891		3,121
Total interest expense	$	—	$	1,916	$	1,616	$	5,709

Term Loan and Revolving Credit Facility — On April 17, 2015, we entered into the fifth amendment to the Amended and Restated Revolving Credit and Term Loan Agreement (the “Fifth Amendment”). The Fifth Amendment, among other things (a) increased the commitments under the Revolving Credit Facility from $350 million to $400 million, (b) increased the Term Loan borrowings from approximately $222.6 million to $350.0 million and (c) permitted us to incur additional credit facility debt to refinance the existing 3% Convertible Senior Notes. On September 29, 2015, we entered into the sixth amendment to the Amended and Restated Revolving Credit and Term Loan Agreement (the “Sixth Amendment”). The Sixth Amendment, among other things amended the maximum leverage ratio from 4.00:1.00 for all periods to 4.75:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending from the date of the Sixth Amendment through December 31, 2016, to 4.50:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2017 through December 31, 2017, and to 4.25:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2018 through June 30, 2018, after which period the maximum leverage ratio will revert to 4.00:1.00 through maturity, (b) amended the interest coverage ratio from 2.75:1.00 for all periods to 2.00:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending from the date of the Sixth Amendment through December 31, 2016, to 2.25:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2017 through December 31, 2017, and to 2.50:1.00 for the fiscal quarters ending March 31, 2018 through June 30, 2018, after which period the minimum interest coverage ratio will revert to 2.75:1.00 through maturity and (c) increased the applicable margin on loans and the commitment fee on unused amounts of revolving commitments if the leverage ratio is greater than 4.25:1.00. Simultaneously with the closing of the Term Loan Credit Facility, we entered into the seventh amendment to the Amended and Restated Revolving Credit and Term Loan Agreement (“Seventh Amendment”) which permits, among other things: (i) entry into the Term Loan Credit Facility and the incurrence of indebtedness thereunder and (ii) the granting of liens by the Company and the Guarantor Subsidiaries in favor of the lenders under the Term Loan Credit Facility on a pari passu secured basis with the liens granted in favor of the lenders under the Amended and Restated Revolving Credit and Term Loan Agreement. For further details on the Revolving Credit Facility and Term Loan, see Note 5 to the fiscal year 2015 Financial Statements. During the nine months ended December 31, 2015, we had borrowings of $565.7 million and made payments of $417.4 million under the Revolving Credit Facility. Additionally, we paid $10.5 million to reduce our borrowings under the Term Loan. As of December 31, 2015, we had $0.6 million in letters of credit outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility.

The oil and gas business environment experienced a downturn during fiscal years 2015 and 2016, which is expected to continue into fiscal year 2017, due to significant declines in crude oil prices driven by increased global supply and forecasts of reduced demand for crude oil resulting from weaker global economic growth in many regions of the world. The oil price decline has negatively impacted the cash flow of our clients and has resulted in their implementation of measures to reduce operational and capital costs in calendar year 2015 compared to 2014 levels, negatively impacting activity during fiscal years 2015 and 2016, which is expected to continue into fiscal year 2017. We continue to expect this “lower for longer” oil price environment to persist through calendar year 2017 with significant uncertainty thereafter on when a recovery will occur. We continue to seek ways to operate more efficiently and work with our clients to improve the efficiency of their operations within our “Operational Excellence” strategy. We are implementing restructuring measures to lower our costs with ongoing cost reduction efforts and cash savings or capital deferral efforts in fiscal years 2016 and 2017.

Considering the current oil and gas business environment and market outlook, management expects that the Company will continue to be in compliance with its financial covenants in its senior secured credit agreements; however, such expectations are based on various assumptions about our business including the impact of crude oil prices and other factors beyond our control and our ongoing and planned cost reduction efforts and cash savings or capital deferral efforts in fiscal years 2016 and 2017. In the event the Company were not in compliance with the financial covenants in its senior secured credit agreements, there can be no assurance that the lenders will consent to an amendment or provide a waiver, or that they will do so on terms that are favorable or acceptable to us, which may have an adverse impact on our financial position and results of operations. In addition, our lenders may require additional concessions from us before consenting to any amendment or waiver. Such noncompliance of the financial covenants would constitute a default under the senior secured credit agreements, and if we were unable to obtain an amendment or waiver, such default would also trigger cross default provisions in the Company’s other debt agreements.

Other Debt — Other debt includes a borrowing for an aircraft purchase at an interest rate of 2.5% with the amount due in December 2016.