Marginal

Remember Go! airlines flight 1002 on February 18, 2008? The pilots were ASLEEP at 9:00 am and overshot the Hilo airport by at least 15 miles. Hilot control tower could not make contact with them for 20 minutes. From Hilo, the next stop is the bottom of the ocean. If this had gone on for another half hour, the plane would not have had enough fuel to make it back to Hilo.

Aloha Airlines is out of business, at least in part due to the predatory pricing of Go! airlines.

So now, for inter-island flights, it's either Hawaiian or G0!.

It will never be Go! airlines for me.

travelinandgolfin

Well, I've already posted my thoughts on Go! (which is NOT favorable for a variety of reasons).

Unfortunately, they are now (along with Hawaiian) the only game in town, and if they play their cards right, will probably succeed.

Sad that they will though, as their predatory pricing succeeded in their mission to drive Aloha out of business. It was never a fair fight as they were willing to lose money to accomplish this goal. Aloha, in it's shaky position to begin with, never had a chance.

My mini-protest, which will amount to nothing, is not to fly Go! either. I've just applied for a Hawaiian Airlines mileage card.

Marginal

Ha- There is a second Go! flight that had "communication problems".

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4250/40/

Just a matter of time before Go! has a disaster, in my opinion.

hulajake

There is another option that is Island Air the big thing with them can be luggage which if you have too much you may need to ship it.

Dukey

"Predatory pricing?" You mean like Wal-Mart? I think it is called "undercutting the competition" and in this case, successfully.

chepar

Mesa obtained confidential financial information from both Hawaiian and Aloha under the guise of becoming a potential investor.

They used this information to enter the local market with the intention of driving one of the airlines out of business.

Hawaiian was awarded $80+ million dollars in their lawsuit against Go (currently being appealed). From what I understand, the Aloha lawsuit against Go is virtually identical. This lawsuit was supposed to go to trial in April, and was pushed back to October.

Behind the scenes rumblings is that Go maneuvered the trial to a later date knowing that Aloha didn't have the funds to operate until then.

Marginal

Nice business to place your life and the life of your family in, isn't it?

travelinandgolfin

Dukey..........I didn't follow Walmart's history. So tell me, did they undercut the competition even thought it LOSES them money?

Because that's exactly what GO! did. They priced their flights so low, they (and everyone else) lost money. But their strategy was to eat those losses long enough to drive Aloha out of business. That's what I call predatory pricing. Legal? Maybe, but I don't like it and won't fly them because of it.

GO! may succeed, but it was done using the ugly underbelly of our capitalist system. Fortunately, there are still some standards of decency (even in the business world) that exist. Obviously in GO!'s world, it doesn't.

rkkwan

Stealing commercial secrets is not ethical or legal.

Selling stuff at a loss to gain market share is totally fine. That's what many newcomers to various markets do for the longest time.

beth_fitz

I smell Southwest coming to Hawaii! They first started by codesharing with ATA and now the door is open with Aloha stopping its flights.

I can see Southwest sending go! home with its tail between its legs.

Rich

Who has the deep pockets behind Go!?

Jolie

Go! is owned by Mesa.

I wouldn't mind seeing another company come in and drive Go! out of business, especially if they have better planes. One of the things that makes me shun Go! is their flying beer cans.

Speaking of planes, I thought Aloha was supposed to switch to more fuel-efficient planes the last time they went into bankruptcy. I wonder if their failure to do so contributed to their demise, or was it just too expensive to get new planes.

At any rate, I expect fares will increase now, with Aloha gone and the superferry struggling.

Marginal

I certainly don't like the idea of flying those horrible over-used Southwest cattle cars with the backward-facing seats to Hawaii.

I need an Aloha Airlines grief support group. <<sniff>>

Maybe we could serve that wonderful Ocean Vodka they served in those dy-no-mite Bloody Mary's.

Ryan

Not commenting about the situation with Aloha, but in terms of them switching to more fuel efficient planes that could only have been accomplished if someone lent them the money or leased the aircraft to them. The market for corporate credit imploded last summer and even relatively healthy companies have had a hard time getting financing let alone an airline that's been in bankruptcy twice in the last few years.

In terms of Wal-Mart, they would certainly not have advertised if they were using predatory pricing. From their inception, they were maniacal about cutting costs. Once they started to gain scale it was easy for them to push through lower prices. If they drove people out it wasn't because they were neccessarily predatory, it was because it was hard to compete with their infrastructure. If fact, if Wal-Mart has an achilles heel, it's the fact that all they have is price and they are very leary about pushing their margins up. Wal-Mart has always had loss leaders, toys for example.

hulajake

Wal Mart has a history of dictating prices to suppliers that for many of them to meet meant closing US operations.
Greed on many fronts has lead to the loss of several thousand jobs.

travelinandgolfin

rkkwan.....please define "perfectly fine" to me.

Do you mean LEGALLY? If so, you're correct. A good way to do business? That's open to debate.

IMO, in anything other than a legal sense, I see nothing perfectly fine with such a strategy.

Having lower prices for a short period of time to attract customers to a new business is one thing.

To have a plan whereby you take millions of dollars in losses for the sole purpose of driving your competition out of business is quite another.