Soverytired
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2006
- Posts
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mdanno808 said:No airline I have ever heard of has set price levels at an unsustainable level, and bragged about coping with the associated losses for 5 years.
Wasn't the whole Independence Air an experiment in trying to run an airline by selling tickets at prices that were less than what it cost to run the flights? Didn't hear a whole lot o' whinning about "it ain't fair, that's ILLEGAL ,<gasp!>", just alot of chuckling at how stupid a model THAT was. And of course, look where that got them . . .
Except Mesa IS profitable. VERY profitable, actually. Been making $$$ for something like 16 quarters in a row (not that I'll ever see one penny of it). So you could very easily make the argument that you have to judge the whole operation (i.e., MAG), not just pick and choose a couple of flights to focus on.
Hell, YOU CAN"T tell if "Go" is profitable or not . . . that info is NEVER going to be broken down in our SEC filings . . . anymore than Hawaiian would break down a HNL-LAS unprofitable flight vs a profiable KOA-LIH flight in theirs.
mdanno808 said:(Especially after unsuccessfully attempting to acquire the competition in Bankruptcy). On top of that, company emails have surfaced which show the true nature of MAG's hawaii venture (which indeed was to drive AQ out of the market and pick up their market share).
Actually, I'd think the fact that Mesa made an $$$ offer after reviewing that info would strongly suggest they made a good faith effort to use that info as part of a bankruptcy bailout deal. If they DID keep it and use it after the fact, well. . . that's wrong, of course. But good luck proving it in a court of law. If that info was available ANYWHERE else (probably not Aloha, which is private, but I suspect Hawaiian will have lots of publicly available info), this lawsuit is pretty much doomed.
mdann0808 said:So dork (aptly named) show me another example of one, or any of these. The airline market is highly competitive in America, yet I have not heard of Jetblue, or Airtran, or SWA, or UAL, (etc.) charging prices (other than introductory) which will not, and can not make them a profit.
I'm genuinely curious about this "introductory" distinction. Mesa's been pretty clear that these fares aren't going to last - the $19 fares are EXTREMELY limited as it is anyway. When does "introductory" end and predatory pricing begin? Mesa's been there, what, 3-4 months?
Was it introductory on day 1, then predatory on day 2? Or was it day 5 the wolf showed it's teeth?
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Anyhoo, hope both Aloha and Hawaiian come out on top. I really do. Seem like they're good places to fly, and they actually make it worth your while to fly there. Mesa is the only airline in the world that could make its flight crews dread being based in paradise (cuz it costs so g-danged much).
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