What Will Become of Go! Airlines
In the never ending saga of Hawaii’s airlines, Go!’s operator and 75% owner Mesa Airlines, may be headed towards dissolution. What becomes of Go! should Mesa fold, however, is unclear.
Previously sole-owned by Mesa, Go! is now a joint venture of Mesa and Republic.
Republic, which previously had acquired ownership of Mokulele Airlines, went running from Hawaii last Fall. They pulled their planes and joined forces with competitor Mesa. It’s doubtful they would return their planes and resources to the islands if Mesa dissolves.
Mesa problems include: Chapter 11 bankruptcy; stock trading at $.05 a share; only $7 million capitalization.
The immediate issue at hand is Mesa’s primary business arrangement with US Airways, and Mesa cannot survive without an extension or transformation of that relationship.
Mesa filed for Chapter 11 in January in part because of its failed deals and a fleet of far too many unneeded and undesirable aircraft.
Outside of Go!, and Mesa’s recently failed Chinese venture, the company depends on major airline partners. Those relationships are rapidly winding down as a result of high fuel cost, the economy and competition. As their partnerships have dwindled, Mesa has been left with too little revenue and too much expense.
Hawaii Inter-Island Market Faltering
Traffic is likely down about 20% in the past year, although Hawaiian Air does not separately publish its inter-island traffic statistics.
Honolulu is no longer the hub for visitor traffic to the islands.
More mainland carriers, like Alaska, are flying directly to the outer islands and increasing direct service from key mainland cities. That trend is irreversible.
The cost savings to visitors is significant. The price to travel between Honolulu and the outer islands has risen dramatically to between $140 and $300 round-trip. That doesn’t make sense when direct round-trips from the West Coast to the outer islands have been as low as $400.
This further undermines Go!’s opportunity to cash in on mainland travelers connecting to the outer islands form Honolulu.
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Wow, how will local’s who live on the outer Islands survive?
It used to be the equivalent of catching the bus to Oahu for Christmas Shopping, Doctors Visits, etc. A 20 minute flight.
Now what are people going to do at $140.00 – $300.00 a ticket? If you have relatives on other Islands, it might as well be as if they lived on the mainland as there won’t be any more quick weekend visits.
With the Superferry gone, this leaves no options.
I have reservations from Kauai to Kona on 8/20 on Mesa. Should I cancel and re-book with Hawaiian to be safe? ,
Hi Kent,
No, at this point I wouldn’t. You’ll lose all the money. It’s too hard to know how long this will drag out or what the outcome will be.
Aloha, Jeff