Originally Posted by Sniper

I know another airline that had no need for 170's and had 717's. Next thing you know . . .

If it's not Hawaiian, who else is big there?

Mesa: wouldn't put it past JO, but his ego wouldn't allow him to do it, and, financially, it makes no sense. Mesa has plenty of RJ's and pilots, plus their costs are likely lower.

Island Air: Would they want a bigger aircraft to do some independent stuff? Doubtful, they had the Q-400, which is, quite frankly, a far superior aircraft for an inter-island route over virtually anything of any size.

United: My guess. United has a relationship with Bedford already, and it seems to be neutral, at least, if not better. United has more flights to Hawai'i than any other airline, so there's plenty of passengers, in theory, too. I say "in theory" b/c direct flights to the individual islands seem to be picking up, and UA has flights to all the larger airports in the islands. Also, tourism (Hawai'i's economic engine, and something directly related to the airlines, since nobody drives to Hawai'i) is down 17% since last year, and down 24% from the west coast of the US, the largest market. Why would you need more feed in the islands at this time? That's why I think it's got to be United - who else would add inter-island flights during a recession that's hitting Hawai'i hard?

US Airways: They don't have much in the way of capacity to the islands, but, b/c they can only devote a couple 75's to HNL, they have to give all of their traffic to the other islands to the competition. This way, US Airways could offer flights to other island destinations. Most passengers would take the connection in HNL if it saved them $10, sadly. Bedford also has a relationship with US Airways.

Should be interesting.