For a vision of Jonathan Ornstein’s future business suit click here.

When will justice be served and this corporate terrorist be thrown in prison where he belongs? Haven’t enough lives been ruined for the sake of this sociopaths motorcycle collection?

The comments section of a recent Honolulu Advertiser article say it all. People are no longer fooled by Jonathan Ornstein’s rhetoric. Ornstein’s siren song of “low fares” has now been replaced by the mantra of “high fuel costs”. Jonathan Ornstein is lying. He was quite content losing money on expensive fuel three months ago when Aloha was still flying.

Ornstein must really think Hawaiians are stupid. Ornstein must also think he is above the law. I hope he is as arrogant with Judge David Ezra as he was with Judge Faris. Aloha is gone but Ornstein still walks the earth a free man. When will the DOJ bring criminal charges against this lying theif of a con artist?

It has been said before the only people flying on go! are the occasional, uninformed, infrequent traveler. It is up to the people of Hawaii and our beloved tourists to warn each other about this airline. Please pass the word around as much as possible; DONT FLY GO dot com!

Mesa shareholders: Mesa stock (NASDAQ: MESA (MESA: 0.49 +16.67%, cap: 13.2M)) has lost 90% of its value in two years. During that time Mesa’s CEO, Jonathan Ornstein has demonstrated a complete lack of managerial vision, making one questionable decision after another. Meanwhile:

1. Mesa’s contracts with the majors are being terminated. For example Mesa Air Group is in a fight with Delta over contract flying. Given the fact that Mesa has lost repeatedly in court recently, their decision to sue Delta over this is itself questionable . . .
2. Mesa Air’s federally subsidized Essential Air Services contracts are contracting to the point of non-existence
3. Mesa’s china deal is a complete paper tiger. Kunpeng (Shenzhen subsidiary) is not flying RJ’s from Mesa, but rather is ordering China-made ARJ 21’s. Mesa’s pilots are not flocking to China in droves as China as hoped. In fact:
4. Mesa air has a pilot shortage due to a massive exodus. This is due primarily to Ornstein’s terrible labor relations. The remaining pilots are worked so hard that Mesa Airlines’ pilots are *literally* falling asleep in the cockpit.
5. Instead of minding the shop, Mesa Air Group’s CFO, Peter Murnane was busy looking at porn on company time.
6. Ornstein committed Fraud on Hawaiian Air and Aloha Airlines, resulting in a $90 million Federal Court judgment for Hawaiian against Mesa. Aloha Airlines goes to trial against Mesa in October, 2008.
7. Go! Airlines is a joke. Mesa cannot make money with 50 seat airplanes when jet fuel costs almost $4.00 per gallon. Once air fares go up, people will stop flying on these cramped airplanes.
8. Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation, including Mazie Hirono and Neil Abercrombie, have demanded a federal investigation of go! Airlines pricing structure, openly accusing Mesa Air Group of illegal predatory pricing in Hawaii.

The shenanigans of Mesa Air Group and its board of directors would make Enron officials blush. It is time for the shareholders of Mesa Air Group to say enough is enough. Oust Jonathan Ornstein through a shareholders’ derivative action and put him in jail with Sarbanes-Oxley charges.

Some suggested reading for Mesa’s board of directors:

On April 19th, 2008, a Mesa Airlines operated go! Airlines CRJ-200 declared an emergency. There was a landing gear malfunction. At least one terrified passenger exclaimed: “If I could never fly again I wouldn’t”. This is the same go! Airlines which had two pilots fall asleep two times in February. The second time they missed their destination by 60 miles. They were at 21,000 feet over the airport that they were supposed to be landing at. (Watch the Feb. 12 and 13 sleeping go Airlines pilot incident video at YouTube.)

Watch the April 19th incident video here: Go! Flight Makes Detour Before Landing

Note the gingerliness with which KHON handles the latter headline . . .

‘There’s no such thing as a free ride’. While everyone in Hawaii is eager to believe that they were being over-charged for inter-island air fares, the truth is that it costs between $50 - $60 per seat to fly those flights. The $9, $19, and $29 fares of go! airlines were sold below cost. The 50 seat planes that Mesa flies are some of the most expensive planes in the country to operate. Nobody wants them, including Mesa’s soon-to-be former contract partner, Delta Airlines. That’s the reason that Mesa brought the planes to Hawaii in the first place: to get rid of them. Mesa’s predatory pricing, along with mis-management and poor decision making* by Aloha’s CEO David Banmiller, and its board of directors — who include none other than Gordon Bethune of Continental fame — are directly responsible for Aloha Airline’s demise.

The people of Hawaii thought they were getting a good deal from go! Airlines. In the end, because of Mesa Airlines’ illegal and unchallenged predatory  pricing practices used to put Aloha out of business, we will all pay. So far the state tourism authority has spent money from its $5 million emergency fund to get stranded passengers home. There were thousands of hotel and tour cancellations, as much as $50 million may be spent from the unemployment fund and other programs to assist the displaced workers.

Mesa’s headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona. Mesa, its managers, and the bulk of its employees all pay taxes there. The next jobs that most Aloha Airlines employees take will probably pay less than they were making at Aloha, meaning they will pay less income tax to the state. Multiply that by 2,000 and the state’s treasury is going to take a big hit next tax season. Those 2,000 people will buy less goods in Hawaii, perhaps sell their house, or worse, have it foreclosed upon, causing the housing market to slow even more. They may have to declare bankruptcy, and in the end they may have to leave the state altogether.

Next, the price of interisland tickets will go up, probably to the $200/ round trip range.

The Federal and State government’s failure to properly regulate and oversee the inter-island air market will eventually cost the taxpayers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

Enjoy those cheap tickets folks. You will be paying for them soon enough. In fact, we all will.

* When Aloha was in bankruptcy 2 years ago they concluded that they would have to reduce their relative inter-island market presence from 50% inter-island/ 50% mainland to something like Hawaiian’s 20% inter-island, 80% international/ U. S. Mainland. Instead, their response to go! Airlines’ entry into the Hawaii market was a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ strategy of doing nothing. And by nothing I mean making the same mistakes that airlines have made for the past 80 years: lower prices and increase capacity in response to a competitive threat. Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein knew that Aloha would have this mindless, suicidal response, and that Aloha Airlines would eventually die because of it. Hopefully in the future airlines will be able to use this information and not demonstrate the same lack of managerial aptitude and vision that Aloha’s CEO David Banmiller has demonstrated.

If, on the other hand, Aloha’s strategy was to auger the plane into the ground as hard as possible to extract more damages from Mesa in the upcoming lawsuit by Aloha, then they made a bad decision there, too, as Mesa Airlines is soon to be defunct, so there will be no one to sue or collect from.

As Mesa’s (MESA: 0.6728 -16.94%, cap: 18.1M) CFIT* barrels on unabated, it is obvious that the company has no thrust left in its engines to clear the next financial mountain range. MESA CEO Jonathan Ornstein has already announced the intended sale of the company’s spare parts just to keep the decrepit plane in the air. With Mesa stock at below pink-sheet levels, it is unlikely that Mesa will be able to pay the $40 million in debts due in June. With more payments to follow, Mesa’s go! Airlines division losing $20 million annually in Hawaii, Delta’s recent cancellation of its contract with Mesa, Aloha Airlines’ lawsuit against Mesa in October, and a $90 million payment due from Mesa to Hawaiian for Mesa’s fraudulent participation in Hawaiian Airlines’ bankruptcy, it is clear that the Mesa party is coming to a precipitous end. Never mind ‘whoop! whoop! pull up!‘ it’s time to put on the chutes and bail out.

The misguided public thinks that Mesa has a better solution at a cheaper price. The truth is that Mesa’s flights were subsidized by the majors and the Federal government, and they’ve both had enough. The tanks are running dry and there are no money-bag investors on Wall Street willing to step in and put some more fuel in J.O.’s tanks.

At dontflygo.com we would like to dedicate this song to our ‘friends’ at Mesa Air Group:

Closing time . . . you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here . . .

To our fellow pilots, flight attendants, and airline employees who crewed for Mesa’s pace car in the race to the bottom, now is the time for you to step away and take a look back at history. America’s airlines — Pan Am, TWA, Braniff, United, American, U.S. Air, Eastern, Aloha, ATA — were once the finest and the proudest in the world. Now they are either gone or they are a shadow of their former selves. Mesa Airlines was the flagship of the ruin of this industry.This would be a good time for you, employee of Mesa Airlines, to reflect upon and consider what you have helped to reap . . . and while you’re standing there admiring the sand castles you’ve helped to kick over, you might consider typing up a resume. Better make some copies in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Hindi, because there will soon be no place left for skilled airline labor to work in the U.S., and you’re about to become very, very unemployed.

Oh, the irony of it all. But hey, every new beginning starts with some other beginning’s end, right? Happy job hunting.

Char siu bao, bim salah bim, and sayonarah, suckaz.

*Controlled flight into terrain.

Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation comes out strong to expose unfair competition in Hawaii’s skies by Mesa Air Group:

April 10, 2008: U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Chairman of the U. S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee presided over a presentation to the full committee on Hawaii’s Aviation Market. The hearing was entitled Challenges Facing Hawaii’s Air Service Market. A representative from Hawaii State Governor Linda Lingle’s office was there, as were representatives from Aloha Airlines (CEO David Banmiller) and Hawaii Island Air (Charles Willis, owner and chairman, and Ms. Lesley Kaneshiro, CFO), as well as Mr. James May, President and CEO of the Air Transport Association. Curiously there was no representative present from go! Airlines or Mesa Air Group (MESA: 0.49 +16.67%, cap: 13.2M). Full testimony and webcast archive of the Senate inquiry into problems caused in Hawaii by Mesa Air group’s predatory pricing through its Hawaii interisland subsidiary go! Airlines and other market factors are available here.

See representatives Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono’s comments below.

Despite Mesa Air’s turmoil, CEO remains optimistic on future. We don’t have to tell you the same bad news we’ve been telling you all along. The media has finally given up on Ornstein’s b.s. and is now telling the whole truth. Mesa’s stock is below $1.00. (MESA: 0.49 +16.67%, cap: 13.2M) Mesa’s market capitalization is less than an expensive home in Beverly Hills.

Mesa will soon be de-listed by NASDAQ, or bought out in a hostile takeover and sold off for parts the way Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein is selling off his aircraft parts to keep the dying beast on life-support. Repeat after me, Mr. Ornstein: “Hello, and Welcome to Walmart. Would you like a smiley face sticker for your child?”

Aloha Airlines, ATA, Skybus, Champion, and now coming soon to a bankruptcy court near you: Mesa Air Group.

The Mesa party is over, folks. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Dear Mesa Employee: Please observe the new trend in the aviation world: Shut the company down with no notice. Both Aloha Airlines and ATA were recently shut down in this manner. It is reasonable to assume that Mesa Air Group, which has a demonstrated history of union intolerance and poor treatment of its employees, will do the same.

Mesa is on the verge of bankruptcy. Contracts are being canceled, the China deal is a bust, you are STILL losing money in Hawaii, and at $100+ per barrel, you will continue to do so as long as you operate 50-seaters. Mesa has $40 million in debt (bonds) due in June that it cannot pay for, and larger debt payments on the horizon. The writing is on the wall. THERE WILL BE NO NOTICE. GET OUT NOW. GET A NEW JOB NOW. DON’T LET MESA TREAT YOU THE WAY THAT ALOHA AIRLINES (YUCAIPA INVESTMENTS, LLC = OWNER) AND ATA TREATED THEIR UNION EMPLOYEES.

MAHALO HAWAII FOR NOT FLYING ON GO! AIRLINES

Aloha captures last on-time record

The now-defunct Aloha Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in February of all U.S. domestic carriers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday Aloha had an on-time arrival rate of 95.6 percent. Hawaiian Airlines placed second at 93.12 percent.

For the year to date, the privately owned Aloha and Hawaiian, which is owned by Hawaiian Holdings (Amex: HA), also finished first and second, respectively.

Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group (Nasdaq: MESA), which flies go! in the Hawaii interisland market, ranked 17th out of 20 airlines surveyed with an on-time arrival rate in February of 62.87 percent.

Hawaiian had the fewest flight cancellations in February, followed by Aloha.

Mesa had the most flight cancellations.

At last we have public representatives calling for justice! Both U.S. House Representatives from Hawaii mentioned an investigation of Mesa Airlines Hawaii inter-island subsidiary, go! Airlines for predatory pricing practices on Hawaii’s TV News this week:

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/17118841.html

Here is Congressman Neil Abercrombie’s exact statement from Friday night:

Hawaii’s congressional delegation may be calling for a release of fuel for airlines from the nation’s strategic reserve to help buffer the soaring costs.
“That’s something the president could do tomorrow, so we’re going to explore that as quickly as we can,” said Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

The delegation also might push for an investigation of airfare practices.

“The Go! Airlines that have come in I believe are engaged in predatory pricing,” Abercrombie said, “and the Department of Justice can certainly take a look at that. The problem is the wheels grind slowly there.”

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Mazie Hirono made a similar statement on the News:

“I was told that the Department of Justice was possibly interested in looking at go! Airlines practices.”

Watch her here: http://savealoha.org/2008/03/27/congresswoman-mazie-hirono-steps-forward-for-justice/

She met and discussed the issue with T & I Chairman James Oberstar on 3/27.