Hawaii’s Low Fare Airline To Cease Service April 1, 2014

Mesa Air Group said Monday that it will cease its Hawai’i operations effective April 1, 2014. Since June 2006, go! has served its nearly five million passengers with safe, reliable and low fare service.

The decision to cease operations in Hawaii follows significant growth in the Company’s flight operations on the mainland and was a strategic decision to focus the organization on maximizing its growth in the capacity purchase “codeshare” operations which comprise over 98 percent of the Company’s business.

"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. Mesa will be placing into service 30 EMB 175 aircraft with United beginning in June 2014, and is adding 4 CRJ-900 aircraft with US Airways in 2014, having added 9 CRJ-900s in 2013,” said Jonathan Ornstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “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. An additional factor that we accounted for was the long term increase in the cost of fuel, which has more than doubled since go! began service and has caused sustained profitability to be elusive,” continued Ornstein.

Under the terms of an agreement with Hawaiian Airlines, go! will be able to re-book passengers ticketed through go! for travel scheduled between April 1, 2014 and June 30, 2014 in specified fare classes on Hawaiian’s Interisland network. go! will refund tickets for passengers who cannot be accommodated on Hawaiian Airlines, or for passengers holding tickets for travel after June 30, 2014. All ticket holders will be contacted by go! reservations representatives regarding the re-accommodations.

In addition, Mokulele Airlines said it will be honoring the flights purchased on go! Airlines for travel on Mokulele where available. For go! flights that were purchased on Mokulele's website for travel to Kaua'i and Hilo, passengers should contact Mokulele for refunds. Mokulele Airlines has had a code share agreement with go! since November 2011 when TransPac Aviation purchased the turbo prop division from Mesa Air Group.

"go! will continue to provide its passengers with safe and reliable transportation through its last day of service, and will work with our passengers and Hawaiian Airlines to minimize the impact that this announcement will have on our passengers,” noted Chris Pappaioanou, President of go!.

“On behalf of Mesa Air Group, I would like to thank all of our many loyal passengers and the continued hard work and dedication of our employees – all of whom will be given an opportunity to continue their employment with Mesa Airlines. While we say goodbye to our many passengers in Hawaii, we look forward to serving you on the mainland through our significant codeshare operations,” continued Ornstein.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.mesa-air.com