Passenger and airfreight services provider Mesa Air Group Inc. (MESA) on Monday said that go!, Hawai'i's low fare airline, will lift the number of daily operating flights to 94 from an average of 54 flights a day, beginning Tuesday, April 1.
With the new service, go! will operate between 11 and 13 round trips per day from Honolulu to each of Maui, Lihue, Hilo and Kona. Also, go! will offer all seats at $49 through Monday April 7, with immediate effect.
Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO, commented, In response to demand, we have significantly increased the number of flights in all markets providing high frequency service throughout the business day. We will continue to adjust our schedule to satisfy demand and work hard to provide the highest quality, lowest cost service to the people of Hawai'i.
Since the launch of inter-island Hawaiian service as go! in June 2006, almost 1.5 million people have flown on the airline and more than 65 thousand have joined go!Miles frequent flyer program, the company noted.
Further, Phoenix, Arizona- based Mesa noted that go! will offer no charge, standby, space available, day of original travel to passengers holding Aloha Airlines paper and electronic tickets through April 3. On Sunday, Aloha Airlines of Aloha Airgroup, Inc., which filed for bankruptcy for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 20 citing unfair competition and rising fuel prices, had said it will shut down its inter-island and transpacific passenger flight operations after Monday. Aloha added that it will stop taking reservations after Monday.
Aloha's downturn started since the launch of go! that initiated an airfare war. In its filing for bankruptcy-court protection, for the second time since 2004, Aloha cited its inability to generate sufficient revenues from its inter-island passenger business due to predatory pricing by go! airline. In the highly competitive inter-island market, Aloha said it was forced to match go!'s below-cost fares at a time when the airline industry was facing unparalleled rises in the cost of jet fuel.
While announcing the filing, Aloha's president and chief executive officer David Banmiller had noted that it was a travesty and a tragedy that the illegal actions of a competitor and other factors completely beyond our control have forced us to take this action.'
Aloha in its Sunday's statement had said that about 1,900 employees will be affected by the shutdown of its passenger services. This is an incredibly dark day for Hawaii,' said David Banmiller.
However, Aloha's air cargo and aviation services units will continue to operate as usual while the U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeks bids from potential buyers. Last Thursday, Saltchuk Resources, Inc., announced its intention to acquire Aloha's air cargo business.
MESA closed Friday's regular trading session at $2.37, up $0.06 or 2.60%, on a volume of 218 thousand shares.
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