Aloha Airlines Calling It Quits

[Jeff Toorish]

Here's the CNN story:

Aloha Air will end passenger service after Monday - Mar. 30, 2008

Jeff

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

It's definitely a shame! I liked Aloha!!! I guess it's Hawaiian for me now...

 

[Puddle Pirate]

I'll be flying GO, seems they were the ones that brought the interisland fares down to a reasonable rate. Hawaiian and Aloha were ripping off the residents of the Hawaiian islands for years with their high interisland fares.

 

[friscuba]

GO airlines will probably raise their prices in time. They've already lost a court case to Hawaiian, it's fairly likely they'll lose the one to Aloha if there's anyone left to continue the suit. They've been charging prices that can't make a profit. Hopefully a big company can come in and take up the slack while keeping prices reasonable.

 

[MeiLing]

I'll be flying GO, seems they were the ones that brought the interisland fares down to a reasonable rate. Hawaiian and Aloha were ripping off the residents of the Hawaiian islands for years with their high interisland fares.

Don't kid yourself. The only reason that they did that was to try to drive one of the two airlines out of the market. This market is only big enought to support two carriers. It was their plan to drive one of them out. They thought it would be Hawaiian, it turned out to be Aloha.

Don't kid yourself. Go's fares will be right up there where Aloha and Hawaiian were.

 

[Lopaka]

Don't kid yourself. Go's fares will be right up there where Aloha and Hawaiian were.

That's what I expect. A shame, I really liked the low prices and convenience of the Honolulu terminal they have.

Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised......

 

[RonFrank]

Unfortunately it's a trend that I think will continue.

Believe you me, you do NOT want one carrier with no competition. When United moved into DIA, flights to cities from Denver that only United flew were MUCH more expensive vs. where they had competition. I could go to Seattle for $200, but going to Portland was closer to $400. Why? Other airlines flew to Seattle from DIA, but only United flew a flight to Portland, and it sucked.

I also worry about our economy with the current cost of Oil, and China buying everything we use from Brass, to Gas.

 

[Byte Me]

What about Mahalo? Are they defunct?

We flew them for all our inter-island flights on our honeymoon and loved them.

Like Ron said - one carrier and no competition makes for high fares. MKE to Detroit is only served by Northwest. That flight? $450 - $550. MKE to DFW or MKE to Cancun? $200 - 250. Go figure. Gotta love competition!

 

[mike_s]

Here's the CNN story:

Aloha Air will end passenger service after Monday - Mar. 30, 2008

Jeff

from the story

Aloha has suffered since Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. launched a new interisland carrier called go! airlines in 2006, triggering a local airfare war.

Banmiller didn't mentioned go! by name in his statement, but did blame the company's demise on rival companies.

"Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business," he said.​

"Unfair competition" ? How is competition unfair? They were having to compete instead of being able to charge higher more profitable prices?

Competition spurs progress. Without it, you would rarely see progress in any product and almost everything would be out of reach of the average consumer.

 

[MeiLing]

from the story

Aloha has suffered since Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. launched a new interisland carrier called go! airlines in 2006, triggering a local airfare war.

Banmiller didn't mentioned go! by name in his statement, but did blame the company's demise on rival companies.

"Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business," he said.​

"Unfair competition" ? How is competition unfair? They were having to compete instead of being able to charge higher more profitable prices?

Competition spurs progress. Without it, you would rarely see progress in any product and almost everything would be out of reach of the average consumer.

It is unfair because they used insider information (as proved when Hawaiian sued them) and created a plan in which they planned to be able to survive (taking a loss) long enough to drive one of the two existing airlines out of business. They were not operating competively - they were taking huge losses because they came in with enough capital and a plan to outlast one of the two.

Like I said, don't kid yourself. Now that they succeeded fares will be right back where they were before, if not higher!

And then when they have trouble making a profit, they'll be right up there asking the state for a bailout!