RockBottom

Hawaiian Holdings Inc Hawaiian Air seeks to ground Mesa Air

HONOLULU (AFX) - Hawaiian Airlines on Wednesday filed a motion seeking a
court order to prevent Mesa Air Group Inc. from issuing interisland tickets for
a year, alleging the new interisland carrier illegally used confidential
information.

Hawaiian said it has proof Mesa and its chief financial officer, George
Murnane III, misled the U.S. Bankruptcy Court about the use of "highly
confidential" documents and trade secrets obtained from Hawaiian in April 2004.

Mesa on June 9 launched go! airlines as the third interisland jet carrier in
Hawaii, entering the exclusive market dominated for decades by Hawaiian and
Aloha airlines and sparking an airfare war.

Mesa was one of several potential bidders for Hawaiian during its Chapter 11
bankruptcy reorganization. Hawaiian Air filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and emerged
in June 2005 under the majority ownership of California-based Ranch Capital LLC.

Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's president and chief executive, said in a
statement that Hawaiian is seeking remedy for Mesa breaching a confidentiality
agreement.

"The confidential information has provided Mesa with an enormous unfair
competitive advantage," said the 39-page motion seeking a preliminary
injunction. "In part, this is because Mesa was made privy to Hawaiian's
marketing methods and pricing strategies."

Mesa President and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said Hawaiian's claims are without
merit and that Mesa has been studying the Hawaii market since 1992.

"We're giving local people an opportunity to visit friends and family with
affordable airfare," Ornstein said. "That's something they could not do before,
and it's a shame Hawaiian is pulling out all the stops to take that away from
them."

Phoenix-based Mesa is one of the nation's largest regional carriers with 182
jets, 5,000 employees and annual revenue exceeding $1 billion. It flies to more
than 170 cities under the America West Express, Delta Connection, United Express
and other brand names.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

mike734

God I hope this is true. Go Hawaiian. Jonathan Ornstein is truely one of this industries biggest problems.

Browntail

It's called the free market system. May the best company survive. Not one that has to go to court to survive.

LOW FUEL

The only place GO! should go is down...

767pilot

Even if they have to cheat to win?

Browntail

What are they doing to "cheat"?

767pilot

That will be up to the court to decide, but in case you didn't read the piece before posting your snide comment, I'll excerpt a bit:

"Hawaiian said it has proof Mesa and its chief financial officer, George
Murnane III, misled the U.S. Bankruptcy Court about the use of "highly
confidential" documents and trade secrets obtained from Hawaiian in April 2004."

lpcunity

The friction here in Hawaii is building, and from what I hear GO! is taking its toll. I would be nice if GO! would hire the locals but because of the union pilots can be sent anywhere in the MESA empire. They told me I would fly the Dash-8 in DC. I hope Hawaiian, Aloha and Island Air will survive.

crewdawg52

"I am heartened that go! has kept to its word and has started service to Hilo," said State Senator Lorraine Inouye. "The added competition has helped make interisland travel more affordable for our residents and will encourage visitors to visit the island of Hawaii," she added.


Quoted from an article in yahoo on airlines news. I really don't have an opinion on this fight, but it seems the locals are liking it.

STILL GROUNDED

Hawaiian has been ****ing and moaning this same story since we announced service in Hawaii. Its there attempt to slow down the machine called Mesa!