Mesa Air Group Settles Aloha Lawsuit
 

Mesa Air Group Settles Aloha Lawsuit and Agrees to Enter Long Term Licensing Agreement

Friday November 28, 5:41 pm ET


Mesa Air Group, Inc. today announced that it entered into a settlement with the former controlling shareholder of Aloha Airlines concerning the Aloha Airlines lawsuit over Mesa's Hawaiian inter-island flight services operated under the go! brand name. Under the terms of the settlement, and without admitting any wrongdoing, Mesa agreed:



-- Mesa will make a cash payment of $2 million;

-- Mesa will issue shares of Mesa common stock equal to 10% of its currently outstanding shares;

-- Mesa will provide certain Hawaiian inter-island travel benefits to the former employees of Aloha Airlines;
-- In the event the shareholder is able to purchase the "Aloha" name in the upcoming bankruptcy court auction, it will license the "Aloha" name to Mesa.

"We are extremely pleased to resolve all claims put forward in this litigation and look forward to re-branding service under the Aloha name in the near future," said Jonathan Ornstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mesa. "This settlement resolves all claims by Aloha Airlines related to Mesa's entry into the Hawaiian inter-island market and permits us to focus solely on our core competency of providing the best service, convenient schedules and low fare pricing to our customers. We intend to carry on Aloha's proud tradition, maintain Mesa's status as Hawaii's low cost air carrier and look forward to future growth opportunities made possible by this settlement.


WOW, just WOW, I don't even know what to say....

Maybe Mesa Suck????

Huh? What's going on?

Looks like JO is doing what he does. Being a little weasel :rolleyes:

I'm happy for my brothers and sisters who still work there though. Sounds like a little bit of positive news for the company finally....

Dont they have another lawsuit?

They settled with Hawaiian for 52.5 mil or something like that about 8-10 months ago and now just settled with Aloha for 2 million that wasn't set to go to court until April or so I think. So as for those lawsuits they are in the clear.

However, they are suing Mokulele for unpaid fuel costs and Mokulele is suing them for something too. Those lawsuits aren't really that much though...

Delta. January.

So how classy is this. Mesa grossly undercuts and puts higher paid local Aloha pilots out of work, then paints/re-brands their CRJs in Aloha colors. Disgusting.

But they are giving them travel benefits!!! :rolleyes:

If thre was no wrongdoing why are they being punished?:rolleyes: For the life of me, I can't understand how Ornstein can look at himself in the mirror.
fbh

Maybe it's because Aloha is gone they didn't have the muscle to deal with it. Still lots of problems for Mesa like having no cash and Delta lawsuits in Jan.

1.) We're suing Delta, not the other way around...on the grounds that they wrongfully terminated our flying. Management probably sees there's nothing to lose, so go after Delta. We'll see how it turns out. We've already lost a pretty good chunk of flying w/ Big D already.

2.) I'm totally caught off guard by the Aloha settlement. I thought we would lose quite a bit more money, had no idea that a proposed settlement was even being considered.

3.) Probably the biggest hurdle is yet to be resolved: A supposed non-deferrable $100,000,000 bond payment to Bombardier due sometime in January/February. Don't know what can be done about that. It's my understanding that we don't have nearly that much cash on hand.

As I have stated before, hate the b@$tard or not, he is a shrewd business man and unfortunately knows what he is doing. Every month the aviation industry states he/mesa is done, yet every month he pulls out another victory. Mesa has been around and still is because young hopefuls go to him for the experience and hopes to leave. Some do and some don't, however the revolving door does not matter, only personnel occupying the aircraft seats. The Delta suit means nothing but inconvenience to both parties and rest assured they will settle. Outcome, cheapest operator will win, and others will be bitter; song remains the same.

I think you have many points that are right. The real mission is helping ALL Mesa pilots understand what they are doing to our profession by supporting their CEO and his corrupt efforts. Mesa ALPA really should be taking some stronger stances, but I haven't seen many headlines.

It would be a disgrace to all of our brothers and sisters to see Go pilot flying Go Airline jets under the Aloha name. May Mesa and JO RIP in the Bankruptcy court soon.

Did you copy and paste from this thread to comair's...or from comair's to here :)

I dont want JO to Rest in Peace....I want him to Rot in Hell!!!

From here to Comair, and I would post this any place I can. Mesa sucks and needs to go away. Nothing aginst the Mesa pilots or employees. Good luck to all. You Mesa guys need to man up and screw JO.

What? Is that why Mesa formed the BK committee when they found the ERJ flying was going to be pulled?? Delta suit has the potential to not only cripple the company but liquidate it.

I don't know much about the Delta suit, but any sort of suit on Delta's part is probably just posturing. The claim is that we didn't meet certain performance parameters set forth by Delta in codesharing contract...breach of contract, hence Delta's ability to cancel the codeshare agreement. Convenient for Delta because w/ the merger, as other threads have indicated here on APC, Delta is looking to get rid of some codeshare partners. Mesa's claim is that Delta mandated some of the cancelations and the the performance numbers re: cancelations aren't accurate.

Evidently the judge overseeing all of this felt Mesa had a "compelling" argument and granted the injunction in favor of Mesa. In other words, if heard in a court of law, Mesa's case would stand a chance. I would think a settlement may be in both parties best interest. Delta feels it doesn't need Mesa, there's no use doing business w/ someone you don't like. Fork over some settlement cash and be done w/ it. Mesa needs the money right now, we've already lost a substantial amount of flying w/ Delta...both parties walk away from the table at least somewhat satisfied.

Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens. W/ this Aloha development, I would think just about anything is possible at this point.

Mesa won the argument in May because they argued that they would be bankrupt while waiting for the court date in Jan. It wasn't because they're special. Still, that makes sense, it wouldn't be fair to Mesa. However this Jan they're going to have to come up with something better if they want to win. It could be a settlement but then why hasn't Delta, which isn't bankrupt like Aloha, wait till Jan? They obviously think they have a case. We'll see no matter what the outcome, not good for Mesa's future.

There sure are a lot of wild accusations flying around this thread with not one source to back any of them up. If you're going to make accusations, back them up with a reputable source or their nothing but gossip.

The court date is for Delta's appeal on the ERJ injunction, not the actual hearing for the case. The actual hearing is sometime this spring.

mesa and anyone affiliated is an utter disgrace. what a slap in the face to those that worked at aloha. the only reason delta brought mesa into the delta brand was for ONE reason. 1) to lower the dci average for work rules, pay, etc. (during the bankrupcty proceedings) thats it. plain and simple. i would feel like a complete loser if i knew that the only reason i was getting awarded flying from a company was to screw everyone else. sorry to be so straightforward but i really am sick of mesa and anyone affiliated with them.

Sounds like maybe the Aloha paper holders think Mesa won't be around very long and want some money now? If Mesa liquidates, will JO buy the Aloha name from Mesa and start another airline? There's more hear than meets the eye.

And we're sick of people like you.

Mesa has $60mil of cash and cash equiv. Net tangible assets is roughly $140.5mil as of June 2008.

MESA: Balance Sheet for Mesa Air Group, Inc. - Yahoo! Finance

Mesa was valued at exactly 0 dollars by a leading analysis group that have 90% success rate in predicting the demise of companies. Just a month ago JO said himself they have no cash and are going to try to be creative for the money due in Jan. Cactusone might be on to something......

This is correct. I dont see how things can continue for Mesa after the 1st and 2nd Q of next year. I would be amazed not to see them filing for BK buy March or maybe even February, and out of business by June.

how about i fly you out to hawaii and you can tell all the locals that face to face....hmmmm. how about i fly you up to milwaulkee and you can tell the folks there that too... naaah! how about cincinnati and you can tell the pilot group there that? ITS NOT JUST ME.

question: HOW MANY PILOTS LIVES ARE SELFISH MESA PILOTS GOING TO RUIN IN 2009?

NO we are sick of people like you. You lower the standards of this industry and would screw your brothers and sisters in a heartbeat to get a job.

As a former employee of Aloha, let me just say that this bs is a huge slap to the face. The thought of JO throwing "Aloha" titles on those go! CRJs is revolting.

Oh, seriously, get off your high horse...

My working at Mesa is more than getting just a "job". It's a beginning to a career. If you'd told me when you were just starting out in the industry that you wouldn't have taken a job at Mesa when it's the only option open to you, you'd be a liar. I get paid what I expect for just entering this industry.

I entered this industry knowing full well it would involve furloughs, liquidation of airlines, etc. It's part of the industry, it's very cutthroat. If you can't stomach that, then maybe this is not the right career path for you. I knew how upset I was when Delta canceled their CRJ contract and caused my furlough. Especially when they were making up reasons for it. (Anyone with two brain cells and is Mesa grudge-free can see the real reasons for the cancelation.) However, as under-handed as it is, I would never wish the job losses of the thousands who work there. Thousands at Mesa make a living there, and Mesa's demise would be devastating for those individuals. For someone to wish that upon another makes me sick. Especially over something like this.

Aloha was an outdated business model. The fares were expensive and I know when I went to HI years ago, we were not able to afford the fare. It's not like YV went in, lowered the fares, put Aloha out of business, then raised the fares to prior levels. That would have been wrong....

Really?? Where did all those $10 fares go? Just did a quick search on their website and I couldn't find a ticket under $80 except for the $45 promotional fare from HNL-KOA,LIH. The $45 tickets were few and far between as well.

Mesa went into Aloha's books under the false pretense of wanting to buy them. Jo then knew exactly how much cash Aloha had and knew he could out survive them in a price war.

Fast forward to now. He has essentially got exactly what he wanted. The Aloha name for 2 million. The guy will burn in hell but he knows exactly how to get what he wants.

That is unless you worked for aloha in which case my deepest apologies.[/quote]

i did not work for aloha, but i have family that is unemployed at aloha due to mesa. i also have a friend at midwest that lost his job due to mesa. oh yeah and my old stomping ground comair has close to 300 on the street as well due to mesa.

as far as those of you that took a job at mesa because it was all you could get at the time....because of the quick upgrade....whatever the reason. i dont really care. as far as i am concerned you are going to be in history books as the reason for the horrible working conditions in the airline business that exist today. republic looks like an average pay company now (remember when we all used to laugh at rah pay?) due to mesa lowering the standard so much now a company like rah looks attractive to a regional pilot. its really sad.

How did Mesa cause your friend at Midwest to lose his job?

Republic caused your friend at Midwest to lose his job.

The demise of Mesa means jobs for pilots that know what they are worth. You guys at Mesa will work for food if you have to. I'm all for the demise of Mesa if it means that thousands of other pilots will get paid what they are worth. We spend $10,000's to get the training and the education and tons of hours training to get a job at an airline. I do not expect to work for nothing like you guys do.

Mod note:

If you think a post violates TOS, please report it rather than lashing out at the forums. Another great option is the ignore feature. Click on the screen name and click on ignore user.

Thanks for your help in keeping the regional forum respectable and flame free.

let's see made 70k last year didn't work much at all & was fairly jr...is that working for nothing?

Ok looks like my 2nd rebuttal was removed as well. Guess I will not be allowed as much leeway since I am on the unpopular side of this argument. I'm out have better things to do.