Go! Airlines (mesa air group) closes its hawaii operations.

Keola

Well-Known Member
http://khon2.com/2014/03/17/go-airlines-to-shut-down-at-the-end-of-the-month/

Mesa Air Group announced Monday that it will cease its Hawaii operations effective April 1, 2014. Since June 2006, go! has served its nearly five million passengers with safe, reliable and low fare service.

The decision to cease operations in Hawaii follows significant growth in the company’s flight operations on the mainland and was a strategic decision to focus the organization on maximizing its growth in the capacity purchase “codeshare” operations which comprise over 98 percent of the Company’s business.

“While this was an extremely difficult decision to reach, we believe it is in the best interest of Mesa’s long term strategic objectives, particularly given the Company’s ongoing expansion of aircraft in service with United Airlines and US Airways. Mesa will be placing into service 30 EMB 175 aircraft with United beginning in June 2014, and is adding 4 CRJ-900 aircraft with US Airways in 2014, having added 9 CRJ-900s in 2013,” said Jonathan Ornstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “With the significant expansion opportunities in flying large regional jets in contracted service, we are re-deploying the go! aircraft to support our existing mainland operations. An additional factor that we accounted for was the long term increase in the cost of fuel, which has more than doubled since go! began service and has caused sustained profitability to be elusive,” continued Ornstein.

Under the terms of an agreement with Hawaiian Airlines, go! will be able to re-book passengers ticketed through go! for travel scheduled between April 1, 2014 and June 30, 2014 in specified fare classes on Hawaiian’s Interisland network. go! will refund tickets for passengers who cannot be accommodated on Hawaiian Airlines, or for passengers holding tickets for travel after June 30, 2014. All ticket holders will be contacted by go! reservations representatives regarding the re-accommodations. Customers and travel agents needing additional information may call 1-888-435-9462 or visit the website at www.iflygo.com.

“go! will continue to provide its passengers with safe and reliable transportation through its last day of service, and will work with our passengers and Hawaiian Airlines to minimize the impact that this announcement will have on our passengers,” noted Chris Pappaioanou, President of go!.

“On behalf of Mesa Air Group, I would like to thank all of our many loyal passengers and the continued hard work and dedication of our employees – all of whom will be given an opportunity to continue their employment with Mesa Airlines. While we say goodbye to our many passengers in Hawaii, we look forward to serving you on the mainland through our significant codeshare operations,” continued Ornstein.

Mesa currently operates 71 aircraft with approximately 407 daily system departures to 85 cities, 36 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico. Mesa operates as US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with US Airways and United Airlines, respectively. The Company was founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982.
 
In the beginning, Mesa told Hawaii they were here for the community so folks could "go visit tutu" on a neighboring island and connect families. Airfares were guaranteed to never be more than $39. Over the years the lies would catch up with them, unraveling credibility and revealing a minimal unreliable operation. No kama'aina wise enough would ever ride on them.

In the end, Mesa cared nothing about Hawaii and only for itself. Back to the mainland they go. This was a sham airline that should've never been. Thousands of jobs were lost... careers destroyed.

Tonight I think about all of the people that once worked for the proud Aloha Airlines.
 
We were down to only two aircraft out there which made it quite a bear when one went down on MX. Though load factors have been pretty decent as of late, this has been a long time coming. Word from upstairs is that Mesa was shopping it's passenger list, hence the delay.
 
Tonight I think about all of the people that once worked for the proud Aloha Airlines.

I was flying with an ex Aloha guy today and we were talking about this. He thinks (and I agree) that if Go hadn't shown up, it is very likely that Aloha would have gotten the funding they needed and probably pushed Hawaiian in to liquidation. The reality that the inter island market can support about 1 1/2 full service carriers (or 1 full service and 2 lower end carriers). There never was a way for two big sized airlines to survive out here.

We were down to only two aircraft out there

There were three on the ramp last week and I'm fairly certain there was a fourth I saw landing when I taxied out.
 
I was flying with an ex Aloha guy today and we were talking about this. He thinks (and I agree) that if Go hadn't shown up, it is very likely that Aloha would have gotten the funding they needed and probably pushed Hawaiian in to liquidation. The reality that the inter island market can support about 1 1/2 full service carriers (or 1 full service and 2 lower end carriers). There never was a way for two big sized airlines to survive out here.



There were three on the ramp last week and I'm fairly certain there was a fourth I saw landing when I taxied out.


Sorry, I wasn't very clear. Only two in service, N407SW & N27318. N75994 has the ferry tanks installed and will be repositioning to the mainland when they find a pilot brave enough for the journey.
 
go! has only used CRJ-200s in its hallowed history. Mesa dumped all the rest of their 200s in bankruptcy. I can understand not wanting the headaches (and losses!) from go! but what will they do with the 200s?

Maybe Great Lakes will acquire them, take out all but nine seats, and put a really low timer in the right front. These clapped-out airframes would fit right in. Unless the CRJs have forgotten all the hot-and-heavy they didn't use in Hawaii.
 
The planes were usually pretty full, but pretty full CRJ-200s still won't make any money.
I used to work in the islands so I saw them operate. When either airline had a mechanical we could easily take the passengers. It will probably be better with Ohana flying now.
 
In the end, Mesa cared nothing about Hawaii and only for itself. Back to the mainland they go. This was a sham airline that should've never been. Thousands of jobs were lost... careers destroyed.

Tonight I think about all of the people that once worked for the proud Aloha Airlines.

Can you fill me in on that backstory? Maybe even how and why Aloha went away?
 
Sorry, I wasn't very clear. Only two in service, N407SW & N27318. N75994 has the ferry tanks installed and will be repositioning to the mainland when they find a pilot brave enough for the journey.
Ha! I remembered when we ferried them all over to the islands. I sat jumpseat on one of them. We ferried from the company hangar in PHX to SFO, then off into the great wide Pacific wondering if we'd make it all the way!
 
Can you fill me in on that backstory? Maybe even how and why Aloha went away?

It's a story that could be written into a book one day.

Here are just SOME of the things that happened...

  • Post 9/11 both Hawaiian & Aloha Airlines go into bankruptcy. Hawaiian has strategically re-fleeted from DC-9-50's to new fuel efficient Boeing 717's. Aloha continues to operate aging 737-200's without a clear fleet replacement. The Mesa Air Group poses as potential investors and are given access to confidential business strategies. They are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Both Hawaiian & Aloha reject Mesa's bid as an investor.
  • Hawaiian restructures and emerges from bankruptcy. Aloha struggles to emerge from bankruptcy and courts a new investor (Yucaipa, 2005). Sensing that Aloha is in trouble, Mesa attempts to scare off Yucaipa in hopes of seizing the remains in a liquidation. Mesa literally goes to the media the day Aloha is to announce signing a deal with Yucaipa and announces a new start-up airline in Hawaii. All they have to announce is a vague plan of having a fleet of CRJ-200 aircraft (no logo, no website, no route structure, etc.). Yucaipa goes through with its' investment in Aloha.
  • A few months later, it becomes apparent an airline is being slapped together. A generic-looking logo and name "go! Airlines" is revealed to the public. A simple website that looked like it was created with MS FrontPage goes online.
  • Hawaiian & Aloha accuse Mesa of using proprietary information to set-up go! Mesa defends itself saying they had done nothing wrong and had been studying the Hawaii interisland market "since the 1990's". Their "research" into the Hawaiian market for 15 years yielded a name called "go!" which had nothing to do with Hawaii. It lacked any cultural appeal which is huge in Hawaii.
  • Mesa begins go! operations Summer 2006. An airfare war is sparked, slashing fares to as low as $1 (cab fare from the HNL airport into Waikiki is $25). Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein promises fares would never be more than $39 one-way. Mesa accuses Hawaiian & Aloha of neglecting the people of Hawaii. A lengthy and turbulent public relations war ensued.
  • Mesa struggles with their reputation when a go! flight bound for Hilo overflies its destination when the crew falls asleep at the controls inflight.
  • Hawaiian sues the Mesa Air Group. During the hearings the court system seizes business computers from Mesa to reveal that confidential documents and other e-mails pertaining to Hawaiian lawsuit had been deleted. When questioned, Mesa CFO Peter Murnane claimed he deleted those files when he was purging his computer of pornography (I couldn't make this stuff up!). Mesa settles with Hawaiian out of court for $52 mil.
  • Aloha sues the Mesa Air Group and requests for an injunction. Unfortunately for Aloha, their lawsuit was delayed multiple times and would never arrive in time. They would be crippled by the fuel crisis of 2008 and halted operations April 1, 2008. Approximately 2,000 local jobs were lost. It was the biggest job loss in the history of the State of Hawaii.
  • Post-Aloha shutdown the Mesa Air Group attempts to work out a deal with Yucaipa for rights to use the Aloha Airlines brand (go! to be rebranded as Aloha Airlines). A judge blocks the sale of the name citing the insensitivies to the many former employees of Aloha.
  • go! fails to capture the marketshare left by Aloha. go! air fares more than double from the originally promised $39. An unreliable operation would leave Hawaii residents and visitors frustrated and infuriated. go! flights are cancelled on a whim, and delays become excessively common. The DOT and Hawaii Visitor's Bureau addresses reliability concerns with Mesa.
  • In the end, go! Airlines never turned a single profit during its entire existance. Mesa quietly exits the Hawaiian Islands.
 
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"Mesa settles with Hawaiian out of court for $52 mil."

I wonder if they got that in cash, monthly payments, or Mesa stock. Surprised JO didn't create his own bankruptcy to wipe out the debt. That would be the more typical airline business move. Hawaiian has certainly done better since Aloha went down. But that makes perfect sense. My buddy that was a Aloha went to Evergreen and not long after that Atlas, where he seems pretty happy. He was a mainlander though.
 
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