Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

[Star of Gladness]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Giving the Hawaii flying public some welcomed relief in fare prices......priceless.


At this point, I don't see go! leaving short of something catastrophic internally with Mesa. You figure if they leave, they still have to pay the fine. Their planes are paid for, the operation is already in place and humming along. What they will probably need to do is raise the fares up but so long as they don't raise it to the old AQ/HA rates, people will still welcome them.

The fine exacted by the judge was based on breach of contract regarding the confidential agreement. Does AQ have the same argument in their suit with go? I noticed the judge didn't say anything about predatory pricing.

I think the Aloha lawsuit has more to do with fraud and tort, but breach of contract is in there also. The fraud is the kicker because it open up Mesa to triple damages if Aloha wins.

Most of the underground reports (Not the Advertiser or Star Bulletin, which after watching the Godfather again I am certain now they have been paid off by Mesa) from the Hawaiian vs Mesa trial indicated that most of the documents being presented were evidence that Mesa indeed targeted Aloha.

This video http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/1327/108/ Howard Dicus and Peter Forman mention a Mesa document titled "Aloha's Cash Burn" that Hawaiian found (during discovery) and Peter indicates that was just one of several documents that are now available to prosecute the Aloha case. And of course theres the famous quote from Murnane, "We don't want to wait for Aloha to die, rather we should be the ones to give them the final push". ornstein later said Murnane was "joking"... Yeah right! I guess he was joking around while he was looking at pRon?

We haven't heard so much as a peep from Aloha about all this since they sued (and later settled for and got) Mo Garfinkle in Maryland for his deposition. I hear through the coconut wireless the rest of their discovery has been going outstanding. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar...709060323.html

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Aloha announced that it is adding a $5 fuel surcharge to all its interisland tickets effective yesterday (Friday). Let's see if HA and go! also do the same thing. Yep, HA is also raising its fares. Whither go!?

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Booya! Mesa finally fired Peter Murnane. The story says that he won't get a severance package even though his contract doesn't expire until 2010 because he was fired. Aw gee, too bad. I wonder if Ornstein will give him a letter of recommendation to his next employer, though? LOL

When is the Mesa board going to wise up and get rid of Ornstein too? He's taken the price of Mesa stock from $9 down to about $4.50/share since go! started operations in Hawaii. Usually those kinds of developments tend to make shareholders very very unhappy.

Miulang

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

So if JO is gone, does that mean you welcome Mesa and go!? How many are anti-Mesa because of Mesa or just because of JO?

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

So if JO is gone, does that mean you welcome Mesa and go!? How many are anti-Mesa because of Mesa or just because of JO?

Would depend on who the new CEO was and how he treated his employees (pilots and others). This crap of allowing unions and then threatening to fire staff for picketing is stupid and illegal, too, if they are doing it on their own time. From all the stuff that I've been reading, the management before JO was actually a decent one, one that respected its employees without exploiting them the way JO has been doing. I think I read somewhere that all of go!s pilots and flight attendants are from the Mainland too.

JO's "manifest destiny", as it were, is to merely use Hawaii as a jumping off point for his plans for Mesa to become a major player in China, which is a WAAAY bigger market than Hawaii will ever be. In a couple of years he plans to have at least 20 planes in China, compared to the 5 currently flying in Hawaii.

It's a wonder that the Board hasn't already offed the guy when the lawsuits were first filed. Murnane may have done the dirty work, but I honestly believe he was the fall guy for JO. In an ethical company, the buck will stop at the desk of the CEO. And to have the price of stock in the company drop by 50% in less than 2 years is a pretty dramatic tumble, particularly when the stock market (and airline stocks) has been somewhat stable until the oil and subprime mortgage crises started. The only reason I can think of why the Board hasn't replaced him yet is they are hedging their bets on doing well in China.

HA's stock is actually trading higher than Mesa's right now, and Mesa is a larger company. If AQ was publicly held, I wonder what their shares would cost?


Miulang

[Star of Gladness]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

So if JO is gone, does that mean you welcome Mesa and go!? How many are anti-Mesa because of Mesa or just because of JO?

Since go! is JO's ego trip, I would guess the first thing anybody will do once they oust JO is to either shut down go! or raise the ticket prices to something North of $70.

A new regime would probably shut go! down instantly as the pilots are sorely needed back on the mainland where the airline actually makes money.

I would like to see go's numbers for September now. I would be willing to bet it was go!'s worst month ever. November ought to be even more dismal.

[Star of Gladness]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Would depend on who the new CEO was and how he treated his employees (pilots and others). This crap of allowing unions and then threatening to fire staff for picketing is stupid and illegal, too, if they are doing it on their own time. From all the stuff that I've been reading, the management before JO was actually a decent one, one that respected its employees without exploiting them the way JO has been doing.

Actually, JO is cut from the same cloth as his predecessor. Founder Larry Risley. Larry was a scumbag also. But pOrnstein has taken it to a new artform.

The irony is Risley was forced to step down back in 97 or 98 when he too also buryed the company and in one day lost almost 50% of Mesa's flying.

Google is a wonderful thing!

It Looks Like United and Mesa Are Parting Ways

After this disaster back in 1997, Mesa shares tumbled down to trade at $5 1/4. Almost a dollar higher than it is tonight, yet Ornstein remains.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Nothing to see here. I deleted what I'd originally written in this reply.
Carry on.

but i liked what you had originally written. quite ethical, really.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

Actually, JO is cut from the same cloth as his predecessor. Founder Larry Risley. Larry was a scumbag also. But pOrnstein has taken it to a new artform.

The irony is Risley was forced to step down back in 97 or 98 when he too also buryed the company and in one day lost almost 50% of Mesa's flying.

Google is a wonderful thing!

It Looks Like United and Mesa Are Parting Ways

After this disaster back in 1997, Mesa shares tumbled down to trade at $5 1/4. Almost a dollar higher than it is tonight, yet Ornstein remains.

But Ornstein managed to woo United back and is even upgrading the Mesa-Delta fleet to CRJ-900s. So obviously JO did some mighty fine wining and dining at some point. Too bad his employees don't get to see any of that. All they get is camembert and water!