A return to the duopoly?
Just what no one suspected, it looks like Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha are claiming that without Mesa Air's go! creating artificially low fares, regular interisland fares would rise, sometimes even doubling.
Hawaiian Airlines President Mark Dunkerley has acknowledged interisland fares will go up if his airline wins its case against Mesa Air Group and go! airlines pulls out of Hawaii.
And Mesa agrees, with its attorney defending against a suit by Hawaiian saying an end to go! "would be disastrous for the consumers. Mesa is the equalizing force driving the prices down."
Hawaiian is seeking to halt go! ticket sales for one year and to collect $173 million against the carrier in federal bankruptcy court, accusing the Arizona-based Mesa Air Group of illegally using proprietary information it collected as a potential investor during Hawaiian's bankruptcy reorganization to plan unfair competition for upstart go! against the island carrier.