LIHUE — It has been more than seven years since go! Airlines began its service in Hawaii at a time when Hawaiian Airlines and the now defunct Aloha Airlines were the biggest players in the interisland travel market. At that
LIHUE — It has been more than seven years since go! Airlines began its service in Hawaii at a time when Hawaiian Airlines and the now defunct Aloha Airlines were the biggest players in the interisland travel market.
At that time, the roll out of go!’s services caused a stir both here in Hawaii and on the Mainland, when they began selling one-way tickets for as low as $39 — a fraction of the price charged by either Hawaiian or Aloha.
Both carriers later matched those fares and separately sued Mesa Air Group, Inc., the Phoenix-based parent company of go!, for misusing confidential information to drive the two airlines out of business — a battle that Hawaiian won two years later.
But despite the stir that go! caused during its first years in Hawaii, news of its April 1 closure wasn’t entirely unexpected to some residents.
“While we are sad to see go! leave the Hawaii market, we were not entirely surprised,” Kauai Visitors Bureau Executive Director Sue Kanoho wrote in an email.
The decision to cease all operations for go!, billed in its slogan as “Hawaii’s low fare airline,” comes at a time of “significant growth in the company’s flight operations on the Mainland,” officials from Mesa Air Group, Inc., wrote in a statement on the airline’s website.
Closing go!, Mesa Air Group officials wrote, is a move that will allow the company to grow its codeshare operations, which comprise over 98 percent of the company’s business.
Mesa Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Officials said another contributing factor to the closure was “the long term increase in the cost of fuel.” Those costs, he said, have more than doubled since go! began service in June 2006, causing “sustained profitability to be elusive.”
“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,” Ornstein wrote. “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.”
go! Airlines, according to the company’s flight reservation website, operates three flights in and out of Lihue Airport each day between Honolulu.
Although actual passenger counts for go! Airlines flights are not available, a weekly average of 1,050 seats were scheduled for Lihue-bound flights on go! Airlines during the first quarter of this year, according to data provided by the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Under the terms of an agreement with Hawaiian Airlines, go! representatives will be able to re-book passengers ticketed through go! for travel scheduled between April 1 and June 30, 2014 in specified fare classes on Hawaiians Interisland network.
“Having lived through two major carriers announcing their closure within 24 hours of each other — Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines — we were glad to see go! provided their customers with a two-week window to transition to another carrier, or receive a refund,” Kanoho wrote. “We are hopeful that some of the other carriers will pick up the difference in air seats.”
go! Airlines will refund tickets for passengers who cannot be accommodated on Hawaiian Airlines, or for passengers holding tickets for travel after June 30, 2014.
Calls to the go! Airlines administration office in Honolulu were not returned before press time.
Ann Botticelli, spokeswoman for Hawaiian Airlines, declined to say how or if the air carrier will implement any measures to accommodate the gap in interisland service left by go! Airlines’ departure and whether air fare increases should be a concern for island residents.
“I stay away from answering questions that could be construed as ‘signaling,’ which is a no-no in our business,” Botticelli wrote.
Info: 1-888-435-9462 or www.iflygo.com.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
