Mesa... go!.... Aloha? Weird...

CamYZ125

Well-Known Member
Mesa Air Group Settles Aloha Lawsuit and Agrees to Enter Long Term Licensing Agreement
PHOENIX, November 28, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mesa Air Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MESA) today announced that it entered into a settlement with the former controlling shareholder of Aloha Airlines concerning the Aloha Airlines lawsuit over Mesa's Hawaiian inter-island flight services operated under the go! brand name. Under the terms of the settlement, and without admitting any wrongdoing, Mesa agreed:

Mesa will make a cash payment of $2 million;


▪ Mesa will issue shares of Mesa common stock equal to 10% of its
currently outstanding shares;



▪ Mesa will provide certain Hawaiian inter-island travel benefits to the former employees of Aloha Airlines;


▪ In the event the shareholder is able to purchase the “Aloha” name in the upcoming bankruptcy court auction, it will license the “Aloha” name to Mesa.



“We are extremely pleased to resolve all claims put forward in this litigation and look forward to re-branding service under the Aloha name in the near future,” said Jonathan Ornstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mesa. “This settlement resolves all claims by Aloha Airlines related to Mesa’s entry into the Hawaiian inter-island market and permits us to focus solely on our core competency of providing the best service, convenient schedules and low fare pricing to our customers. We intend to carry on Aloha’s proud tradition, maintain Mesa’s status as Hawaii’s low cost air carrier and look forward to future growth opportunities made possible by this settlement.”



Mesa currently operates 152 aircraft with over 800 daily system departures to 126 cities, 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Mexico. Mesa operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, respectively, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go!. In June 2006, Mesa launched Hawaiian inter-island service as go!. This operation links Honolulu to the neighbor island airports of Hilo, Kahului, Kona and Lihue. The Company, founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982, has approximately 4,100 employees and was awarded Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine in 1992 and 2005. Mesa is a member of the Regional Airline Association and Regional Aviation Partners.



This press release contains various forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable; it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Such statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, estimated, projected or expected.
 
Holy #### they brought down Aloha and then will acquire their name for just $2 million. Damn you have to give the guy props.
 
And where the hell are they gonna get 2 million dollars from?
From the petty cash box on the 11th floor!:D Of course that's 2 million less he has for those two big payments coming up. I'm sure he finnagle some agreement for the payments and continue marching on.
 
And where the hell are they gonna get 2 million dollars from?

Haha... yeah, I was like 'damn, that's gotta be like 10% of our cash reserves, easy'.

I guess this is a good thing for Mesa... getting by with only $2 million (as opposed to another $50+ like Hawaiian) but damn.. talk about a disgrace to the Aloha name.
 
Haha... yeah, I was like 'damn, that's gotta be like 10% of our cash reserves, easy'.

I guess this is a good thing for Mesa... getting by with only $2 million (as opposed to another $50+ like Hawaiian) but damn.. talk about a disgrace to the Aloha name.
Maybe now they won't have any money to pay the lawyers against Delta in January, and Freedom will go away...........
One can dream, can't they?
 
The Aloha court case was a lot weaker than the Hawaiian one, it was entirely based on 'predatory pricing' instead of the misuse of confidential information that occured in the Hawaiian airlines case.
 
I don't see anything in Lowlevel's post that indicates any hatred or anger towards the pilots.

But hey - eye of the beholder.

JO and MAG have two huge payments coming up, two that they will not be able to afford. The writing is on the wall and as a matter of fact, it's been on the same wall for over 6 months now.

It's a horrible environment to be looking for a job right now, and I'm sure that in 6 more months it'll be even worse. Time is now to prepare. Good luck to all involved in JO's little play fest.
 
I don't see anything in Lowlevel's post that indicates any hatred or anger towards the pilots.

But hey - eye of the beholder.
It'd be kind of like saying that I hope ASA goes out of business. I'm wishing the company ill will and the fact that you work there happens to be a coincidence. Collateral damage so to speak.
 
I agree with you man. . .I just wouldn't allow one's internal emotions concerning their perceived employment stability to dictate what they are reading.

Perhaps it's best to emphasize the difference between wishing JO and MAG ill vs wishing ill upon the workgroups who are only along for the ride.
 
I don't see anything in Lowlevel's post that indicates any hatred or anger towards the pilots.

But hey - eye of the beholder.

JO and MAG have two huge payments coming up, two that they will not be able to afford. The writing is on the wall and as a matter of fact, it's been on the same wall for over 6 months now.

It's a horrible environment to be looking for a job right now, and I'm sure that in 6 more months it'll be even worse. Time is now to prepare. Good luck to all involved in JO's little play fest.
Not saying anything about the pilots. We are all just turds in the big bowl of aviation, spinning around and not sure when we're going to get sucked down the pipe. (WOW, there's a wacky metaphor!)
I read an interview that JO did and he stated "Why would I raise pilot pay, there are many pilots out there willing to work for the pay we give" (or something like that). That is the problem with the whole business, we will still have pilots coming in and working for crap pay, at crappy companies. Maybe they did not explain to you at the orientation that the 4 hour taxi at JFK would be unpaid (because you are paid the scheduled block time)? How anyone can stand for that, I do not know, but it is in the contract. To no fault of the pilots, the service that Freedom has provided to Delta is subpar and just plain lousy. Much of the lousy service is because they do not have enough reserves to cover pilots timing out if wx gets bad, some of the lousy service is because of the aircraft that you fly (weight and balance problems constantly causing Freedom to kick off passengers). Some of the lousy service does come from a few pilots with either bad attitudes or just lacadazical attitudes. One example was when I was commuting to CVG from JFK and the captain kicked all 5 nonrevs and a paying customer off the 6am flight because he was taking extra bags that were left off a flight the night before. He actually took off in a 50 seater with 40 pax and extra bags! The next flight out of JFK was at 1345, so we all went to LGA to get a flight (cab fare). Why was there such a dire need to get these bags to CVG right away and deny passengers a ride, when they were already left behind and would surely get there by the end of the day. Yes, this I would consider a poor pilot decision, especially since one passenger was a paying passenger.
At a different time, I was DH on Freedom flights where they rushed to get out on time, and pushed extremely early (just before the last court date). On one of these flights, my captain showed up at the gate 20 minutes before scheduled departure, only to see the plane already taxing on "A" taxiway. On a DH a few days after that, I walked down the hall in Term 3 to get something to eat. As I passed the Departure screen, it showed my flight "BOARDING" at 1205, for a 1250 departure?? I turned back and headed to the gate. When I got to the plane at 1220, they were pulling the steps away, I actually had to get them to put them back. Once on board, I asked my captain where our FA was. He said she was not on board yet. I told the Freedom FA that we were still waiting on a DH FA. She told the captain, then came back to us and told us that the captain said "The paperwork is out, we're not waiting". We pushed at 1230 (1250 departure!). I told the Freedom FA that we only had a 25 minute turn in BWI and now it would be delayed hours while we wait for a FA, she replied "Cool, we are there for 2.5 hours, we can hang out" If they were going to sit for 2.5 hours in BWI, why the early early push?? Again, I believe this to be a poor pilot decision. Not saying that all the pilots are bad at Freedom, but there are a few there that need to step back and think about their actions and how they affect others around them, as well as how other airlines' employees view Freedom, Mesa, and their employees.
 
I imagine that pax volunteered to take a later flight in exchange for a voucher (otherwise thats something one could get in trouble for but this sounds like gate agent stuff) and as for non-revs I've been bumped for US mail. It's a fact of life flying non rev.

If that flight was recent, well -- Delta is giving us el crapo schedules in an effort to have a better leg to stand on in our legal dispute. Also, Freedom doesn't do gate service nor do they have any real say when the gate agents start boarding. Kind of a bad situation that you described and since we're in negotiations I'd say return to the gate and put the delay on us but I can see that the captain realized that they probably wouldn't make the 1250 d0 time if they went back and Delta is breathing down our neck for any d0, a+15 or completion factor stats.
 
Go! to rebrand as ALOHA??

[modhat]sorry for any confusion, I merged the other thread with this one.[/modhat]

Sad news out of Honolulu.
Honolulu Star Bulletin said:
Mesa settles Aloha suit

The parent company of go! airlines secures the right to re-brand its interisland service as Aloha
STORY SUMMARY | READ THE FULL STORY

Now-defunct Aloha Airlines could be flying again in the next three months -- with rival Mesa Air Group at the controls.
The parent of go! sent shock waves through the local airline community yesterday with the announcement that it has obtained the licensing rights to re-brand go! as Aloha through a lawsuit settlement with Yucaipa Cos., Aloha's former controlling shareholder.
The use of Aloha's name is contingent upon a hearing next week in federal Bankruptcy Court in which Yucaipa is the leading bidder for Aloha's intellectual property rights.
Mesa agreed to pay Yucaipa $2 million; issue Yucaipa 10 percent of Mesa's common stock, which closed yesterday at 20 cents a share; and provide interisland travel benefits to former Aloha employees.
Mesa Chairman and Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein said the re-branding will give the Mesa interisland entity "better brand awareness and better visibility" and ensure that fares remain low.
However, local aviation historian Peter Forman said, "Because of Mesa's role in the demise of Aloha Airlines, local passengers, instead of seeing Mesa as a wolf, will now regard the airline as a wolf in sheep's clothing."
— David Segal
 
I imagine that pax volunteered to take a later flight in exchange for a voucher (otherwise thats something one could get in trouble for but this sounds like gate agent stuff) and as for non-revs I've been bumped for US mail. It's a fact of life flying non rev.

If that flight was recent, well -- Delta is giving us el crapo schedules in an effort to have a better leg to stand on in our legal dispute. Also, Freedom doesn't do gate service nor do they have any real say when the gate agents start boarding. Kind of a bad situation that you described and since we're in negotiations I'd say return to the gate and put the delay on us but I can see that the captain realized that they probably wouldn't make the 1250 d0 time if they went back and Delta is breathing down our neck for any d0, a+15 or completion factor stats.
That flight, with the 1250 departure, pushed at 1230. Delta says you can push 10 minutes early, not 20. That was completely the captains decision and it was against the 10 minute rule that Delta has set. We were still at the gate when he told the FA that he would not wait, the paperwork was completed,but not out the door, and the door was still open. Also, the steps were still in place after I just got the ramp agents to put them back for me to get on. These flights occurred the week of the first court date, back in September, so I believe that either the captains were told to push early to look good that week, or they took it upon themselves to try to "polish a turd" before the court date. There was no crap schedule for that 1250 departure. The a/c was at the gate, obviously by 1210, because they were boarding then, and they had a 2.5 hour break at BWI at the completion of the flight. What was the rush?
 
I don't know, I wasn't there. I tend to give my colleagues the benefit of the doubt over some guy dreaming that we go out of business, though. I've never flown on the Freedom certificate but how it works in United Express is that we don't finish the W&B paperwork until the gate agent / ground peeps hands us the baggage slip with the number of checked in pax on it (which signals that they're done boarding.) Then the FA makes his/her count and if the two numbers agree then we know we have all the pax on board. Maybe ops was rushing them to get this flight out because they had an a/c idling waiting for the gate, who knows.

What also may have happened (although I hope this is not the case) is in September most of the Freedom guys were thinking they were probably going to be either out of a job or downgraded and expected Comair to pick up the flying we were scheduled to lose (it was on DeltaNet that way) and this captain decided to screw over some ComAir guys -- if this was the case he certainly is not representitive of Mesa as a whole -- there are bad apples in every bunch. I could tell you some stories about some serious bad apples in your company but nothing gets accomplished in an exchange like that.

I also want to say something with regards to Aloha and this isn't a very popular view so I am somewhat hesitant to say it but I don't think Mesa bares all of the blame for Aloha's downfall. Some of it, certainly. But it is a little naive to think that 4 CRJs servicing 5 cities brought down a carrier operating over 20 737s to 12 destinations single handedly. I think having a price war with Aloha was a stupid thing to do and kind of despicable since most of the time we operated at a loss anyway in Hawaii and probably still are (although supposedly we are losing less than we would if the aircraft sat idle which they call a victory.) In any event, I think the 12 737-200s and oil at $110/barrel (March 2008) is the terminal illness that killed Aloha -- they were already drowning, JO just put some cement shoes on them with the increased competition.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to "cover" for or dispute that JO was a dbag here however I think that many people are giving the management at Aloha a complete pass with the simplified explanation that 'Mesa killed Aloha'.
 
Well said, SpiralingMeatballs. We don't leave till the gate agent closes the flight, which doesn't really happen 10+ minutes prior to departure. But hey, I don't work the Freedom side either.

Anywho- back on topic. From what I've read, it's not 100% sure that Mesa will get the Aloha name, but is a strong possibility. Personally, I think it's a disgrace to the Aloha name and former employees. But I sure as hell don't run this company.
 
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