US Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King apparently was not impressed by all the nice things Mesa Air Group wanted to do for the former emplyees of Aloha Airlines. The Associated Press reports King ruled last week that Mesa cannot use the "Aloha" name on its Hawaiian "go!" subsidiary, even through a licensing deal with the former Aloha stockholder who now controls the bankrupt company's assets.

"go!" came on the scene in 2006, providing serious price competition in what had been a very sleepy inter-island marketplace. Mesa was found to have engaged in illegal anti-competitive behavior when it presented itself as a bidder for struggling Hawaiian Airlines, then used information gained confidentially to compete with Hawaiian and Aloha. Mesa was ordered to pay a settlement of 80-million dollars.

Aloha succumbed to the price war, shutting down service last year. Mesa was moving to take over the name and intellectual property of the former Aloha airlines for as little as 6-million dollars. The seller was Yucaipa Companies, LLC, which reportedly lost investments totalling 113-million dollars when Aloha went bust. Mesa had also promised to provide some additional benefits to former Aloha workers displaced by the shutdown.

The apparent attempt to buy out Aloha's good reputation has not sat well with Judge King, who has now blocked the name change, even though Yucaipa was the winning bidder for Aloha's assets. In his denial he said, in part, quote...

"Mesa succeeded in inflicting great harm, not only upon the Aloha corporate entities, but also upon thousands of Aloha employees and their families. Now, through Yucaipa, Mesa seeks to perfect its wrongdoing by becoming Aloha."

"As a further complication, Mesa's past dishonesty in this court will surround any hearing in which its veracity is at issue with an atmosphere of disbelief."

FMI: www.justice.gov, www.mesa-air.com