Mesa / Mokulele terminate code share
 

Thomson Reuters
BRIEF-Mesa Air terminates code share agreement with Mokulele Airlines
03.23.09, 01:01 PM EDT
March 23 (Reuters) - Mesa Air Group Inc:

* Mesa Air Group Inc. (nasdaq: MESA - news - people ), announces termination of code share agreement with Mokulele Airlines


* Says elected to accelerate its termination date following Mokulele's

announcement of its CEO replacement

* Says go!Express passengers traveling on or after March 25, 2009 will be

re-accommodated on flights operated by Hawaii Island Air

Most likely due to the fact that A) Mokulele has no revenue to pay a partner, and B) You can't even find them in any reservation system to buy a ticket.

Scott Durgin: "I have the controls!":mad:

Bill Boyer: "You have the controls" :o

The computer issue has been a hot topic with them. Hopefully they'll resolve the issue quickly. I hope RAH uses one of the Aloha guys to run the place.

this isnt really a shock since RAH owns Mokulele now. Republic Airways takes 50% ownership at Mokulele - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

We'll see what happens I hope RAH is successful with th inter island market.

Actually Mesa pays Mokulele for the flights as a pro-rate, Mokulele doesn't pay Mesa anything - that was part of the codeshare deal as JO desperately needed a Hawaiian carrier partner. How else do you think go! got their ticket counters?

And Mokulele is on all the GDS's - its just been a slow process to upgrade to e-ticketing, which is a requirement of the Travelocity's and Orbitz's of the world. They are on Kayak, however.

What's interesting is the former president of Mokulele, who put out the massive schedule 30 days after their announcement (most airlines announce their services 90 days out), is now at the helm of Island Air, who is on record for hating go! and blaming them solely for the demise of AQ (as if high labor costs and op costs of the 732s had nothing to do with it)

WHo is at the helm?? better check the facts and just who hates who???

At the time of MOK and RAH going into business together MOK owed Mesa $400k which JO was taking them to court for.

Here's the lowdown as I understand it. Mesa and Mokulele were going to sever ties anyhow. Because Mokulele had trouble paying RAH last month, there was wide speculation on the island that Mokulele may go under. This seriously affected Mokulele's bookings, as people were nervious. Mesa's early "termination" is an attempt to further spook people out of purchassing tickets on Mokulele - by making them look undesireable by one of their business partners. It's a brilliant move on the part of JO. In this industry, perception is so crucial.

There are no people to scare. The planes are empty. HA domination.

Regarding the $400k, Mesa lost the check for the fuel. And because it was such a large check, getting it recut just isn't that easy.

RW took control of some of Bill Boyer's stock, who now only owns 25% of the company and RW has 50% of the stock, with the balance going to the other smaller investors.

The loads are building, however they were fairly decent for February, YV's claims they were 20% are off significantly.. try closer to 50%. The caravan ops are also doing quite well - while some days are better than others, MW has had 100% loads on a few days on the weekend. So this isn't a sinking ship.

There's way too much competition out there. For a small area and population, it's oversaturated. I wish as many scheduled airlines operated in Canada!!!

And now we're codesharing with Island Air in violation with our scope clause of our contract? At the same time they've already got 64 guys furloughed and another 100 on theway. And the aircraft that Island Air flies? Dash-8. WHY THAT IS COINCIDENTAL! That's also an aircraft I fly! For a couple more weeks anyway.

Word has it JO and BB sued each other. That lost check is really lost for months. Other Airlines are counting pax and bags with different numbers than yours. Hard to sink a caravan when you can not fly over water farther than it can glide back to solid land. BB said on a morning tV news show he was running at 90% and at the same time asking for investors. I guess his family has a new big daddy. He must have been talking about his caravans. How many is that? 8 people??

I don't think it is a violation of our scope. Tell me how?...maybe it is...I just don't read it that way.

well when you launch a "new" carrier into a market that's never heard of you (Lihue) with 9 flights a day (also his home), you wonder how much cash you burn thru by flying only 4 to 5 people a flight. The launch is what killed the cash. Remember, go! launched with really really heavy load factors and had about a 6 month build... Moku only did a 30 days build and LF's in the toilet. The excuse we heard was "its a holiday, flights will be full"... turned out to only be a few - while the Caravans were running at 90-100% full. However, the person that did all of that is gone from Moku's payroll.

Kona and Maui have been the strongest of the jet flights, and that's because Mokulele's "operational" home is Kona and they've been flying to Maui for about 5 years, so the folks there knew him.

The Caravan ops have been running quite well, when a select few pilots aren't blowing tires, and maintenance gets the support to keep'em all flying. The loads on the Caravans are between 60 - 80% on the average. Honolulu-Molokai is going to be at 10 flights a day this summer, so they're doing something right, and Kona - Maui should be around 8 or 9.

However, it will take a lot of caravan flying to offset the losses of an EMB 170.

Regarding the Scope Clause in the go! Express operation, I think that JO has felt he can 'ignore it' - isn't that his modus operandus?

Its in the ALPA contract... MAG can't codeshare with another carrier flying the same size or equivalent aircraft.

Read the alpa email that came out today they don't see it that way
"The MEC is concerned with the recent flying of Island Air 35-seat, not 10-seat aircraft. To be clear, the MEC did not grant the company permission to enter into this partnership and did not grant the company relief on our Scope clause.

At this time, there is no indication that this flying violates our Scope clause as the Island Air planes will not operate go! routes or city pairings. However, we are monitoring this situation closely and will file a grievance if necessary. Such a grievance would be expedited, as stated in Section 1.E. (Remedies) of our contract: "

It's semantics. The only reason they're not "our" routes is because Island Air is flying them. If they weren't flying them we would have to, at least with a couple of them, to remain competitive. It's an equivilant of United dropping a city pair entirely on mainline so they can have outsourced 757s fly it.

By the way, below is our scope language which is pretty clear:
The first sentence is pretty clear. There is no mention of any routes or city pairings in our scope clause. This flying is being performed for Mesa Air Group, Mesa Air Group receives income from this flying. It should be performed by pilots on the MAG seniority list. Even the Caravan flying. We have pay rates for caravans (0-19seat turboprop).

Agreed. I think the precedent was set when 'go! Express' was allowed to fly for more than 60 days though.

This kind of thinking is just like DALPA's in the early 90's - 'a couple small aircraft, big deal'. Commair (and the RJ) got their 'nose under the tent', and now the same thing is happening @ the regionals, ironically.

Per one of the previous MAG MEC hotlines there is a grievance pending (Scope) for go! express operated by Mokulele, so maybe not.

I hope so. Typical RLA stuff: The company violates the contract, and it takes years to resolve. By the time its resolved, Mesa could be insolvent, and Mokulele (now owned by RAH, I believe) could be the #2 inter-island carrier in Hawaii.

Meantime, AirTran's got a pilot terminated b/c he wore his uniform to drop his family off @ a circus sponsored by NPA on his way to work.

The company gets to sink the union's boat. The union can't fire back, but is left to negotiate for the pieces of the wreckage years later. Gotta' love the system.:rolleyes:

Airtran pilot was suspended, not terminated I believe. In any case, you're absolutely right. It doesn't help that the company always has an "out" away from the RLA process, which the union never has -- which is bankruptcy.

Always noticed that for any contract improvement that the full slow process of the RLA is used? Years and years sometimes of operating under the old contract, but any time contract concessions are called for they happen in weeks or months?

Care to explain yourself further? Maybe you could have touched on the fact that it was never the pilot's fault infact it was a faulty tube stem on each flat tire. Mokulele was not the only 208 operator that recently had this problem.

Bingo. Then once the company gets a quick concession from the group they are now bound to it until they draw out the long neg. process of the RLA. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I hope it is a scope violation....but I don't think so, since it is a CODE SHARE agreement. In other words..it is Island air flights not go flights...get it.

The go express stuff is a scope violation.....cant call your self go express and claim code share.

There are a lot of factors, and that being one of them. 1 pilot alone blew 3 within a 2 week period.... which could have been a mix of bad landings + bad tires. The last blown tire was a fairly new tire with not even 50 landings on it.

No that was the only factor. That is what MX and CP determined. It doesn't matter how new the tire is with something like that. The tires did not have holes in them from being blown. They simply became flat after good landings due to the stem.

You would think if it were pilot error the FAA would be all over the pilot especially if it happened 3x like you claim. :rolleyes:

What FAA?? Its a 135 ops..

Well I would think at the minimum the POI would be asking ALOT of questions if it were pilot error over and over and over. :cool:

The CP is an idiot... The pilot is a moron and both should have been fired. I hope RAH comes in a cleans house! Sure it could have been faulty tires or the fact that the idiot always landed with his feet on the brakes!