Mesa Air Group Inc. said it will cease its Hawaii operations effective April 1. The airline has served nearly 5 million passengers since entering the interisland market in June 2006.
The decision to cease operations in Hawaii follows significant growth in the company’s flight operations on the mainland. The company plans to focus on maximizing its growth in the capacity purchase “codeshare” operations which comprise more than 98 percent of its business, according to a written statement on iflygo.com.
“While this was an extremely difficult decision to reach, we believe it is in the best interest of Mesa’s long-term strategic objectives, particularly given the company’s ongoing expansion of aircraft in service with United Airlines and US Airways. Mesa will be placing into service 30 EMB 175 aircraft with United beginning in June 2014, and is adding 4 CRJ-900 aircraft with US Airways in 2014, having added 9 CRJ-900s in 2013,” said Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and chief executive officer.
“With the significant expansion opportunities in flying large regional jets in contracted service, we are redeploying the go! aircraft to support our existing mainland operations. An additional factor that we accounted for was the long-term increase in the cost of fuel, which has more than doubled since go! began service and has caused sustained profitability to be elusive.”
Under the terms of an agreement with Hawaiian Airlines, go! will be able to rebook passengers ticketed through go! for travel scheduled between April 1 and June 30 in specified fare classes on Hawaiian’s interisland network, the statement said. go! will refund tickets for passengers who cannot be accommodated on Hawaiian Airlines, or for passengers holding tickets for travel after June 30. All ticket holders will be contacted by go! reservations representatives regarding the re-accommodations. Customers and travel agents needing additional information may call (888) 435-9462 or visit the website, iflygo.com.
Mesa currently operates 71 aircraft with approximately 407 daily system departures to 85 cities, 36 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico. Mesa operates as US Airways Express and United Express under contractual agreements with US Airways and United Airlines, respectively. The company was founded by Larry and Janie Risley in New Mexico in 1982.