ok Mesa guys, lets have it!!! This is more pravda but informative. Maybe the new go pilots could live with the homeless on the beaches and public parks...
Buzz Saw
It's Time To Go!
With a stated goal of making inter-island air travel affordable for local folks again, Jonathan Ornstein and the new go! airlines are positioned for long-term success in Hawaii
http://www.midweek.com/content/story/midweek_coverstory/its_time_to_go/P0/
Wednesday - June 28, 2006
There are few more polarizing people in Hawaii this year than John Ornstein, CEO of the new go! airlines.
To some he is the savior of inter-island travel, reuniting long separated family and friends with $39 flights that everyone can afford.
To others he is a cutthroat haole businessman here to crush Aloha Airlines with his predatory pricing, putting thousands out of work and setting his sights on Hawaiian next.
But when the rhetoric settles, we find he is just a businessman who saw a need and is trying to fill it, and if the other airlines can’t handle it, then so be it.
“We looked at the market and we saw it wasn’t possible for most people, local people, to fly when it’s $200 roundtrip for a 15-minute flight,” says Ornstein from his offices in the commuter terminal at Honolulu International. “It was ridiculous.
With low fares and deep pockets, Jonathan Ornstein and go! are sitting pretty
“They (other airlines) are upset because there is competition. Well hell, that’s what happens in the marketplace when you charge fares that are significantly above what would regularly be considered compensatory.”
While it may be ruffling feathers with the other inter-island carriers, the local reception to the fledgling airline has been better than predicted. In the first 10 days of business it has been carrying an 80 percent load factor (translated: okoles in seats) when it had only hoped for 55 percent.
Perhaps even more important than big sales for a new business is the reaction of those onboard.
“My crew tells me how they are getting thanked every day, and that just doesn’t happen in this business,” says Ornstein with a laugh. “On the first day, I had a mother come up to me and say she was taking her sons to see their cousins for the first time in five years because before it would have cost her $1,000 to do it.”
Despite criticisms that the prices are just stunts to choke out the cash-starved Aloha Airlines, Ornstein says the prices are here to stay. They may not stay at $39, but he doesn’t see them as getting much higher than $69.
“We intend to keep low fares; this is not a gimmick,” says Ornstein. “Southwest did not establish itself as the low-fare airline by offering low prices for a month than raising their fares. We want to be the low-fare airline of Hawaii.”
The reason it can do this is by focusing on the local customers rather than the connecting flights - or code sharing, as it’s known in the industry - from major airlines. Most regional carriers work in conjunction with the airlines, transporting people from the major hubs to smaller, regional airports.
For the work, the smaller airlines get just a small part of the ticket price, around $35. The rest of the seats are sold at a premium to make up for the lost revenue.
Code sharing is how Ornstein’s parent company, Mesa Airlines, has become the second biggest regional carrier in America, through its partnerships with big boys like Delta and United. But he took this philosophy and turned it on its ear for go! in Hawaii.
“My attitude is if I’m going to sell a ticket for $35, I’d rather do it locally than as a through-fare,” says Ornstein, who believes that moderate pricing across the board is much more fair to the local consumer.
“We don’t have a transPacific business that we are trying to support effectively off the local market. We aren’t interested in connecting passengers, we are here to offer reasonable rates to people traveling between the Islands.”
Maintaining an inter-island airline only has never been successful here, but Ornstein believes that with his philosophy and the $300 million that Mesa has in the bank, they can weather the volatility of starting up an airline and becoming a trusted brand in Hawaii.
That financial security is another reason critics cite when crying foul over go!. Many believe they are going to come in here like a certain superblock store and destroy all the little guys just struggling to survive.
“We are adding 5 percent to the market and people are comparing us to Wal-Mart,” says Ornstein with a shake of his head. “Wal-Mart comes in with a store 15 times bigger than its competition. We are one-15th the size of our competitors. It’s exactly the opposite.”
When looking at the numbers, it does seem a bit Chicken Little: go! has two 45-seat jets flying currently, with plans to have a whole five planes flying by the end of July.
When passengers walk out onto the tarmac to board go!’s little converted corporate jets and they look over at the jumbo jets at the main terminal for Hawaiian and Aloha, it would seem that Ornstein should be the one who’s scared.
But that’s fine with him. He enjoys being the underdog. Back home in Phoenix, he plays in a basketball league with former college and NBA players where he is always the shortest and slowest guy on the court. His first taste of the airline industry was with Air LA, where he went from being financially successful in the securities market to baggage handling for a tiny airline.
He sold all his assets, moved from his big house into a tiny apartment and had to take a scooter to and from work. But the lessons he learned there got him a shot with the then-tiny carrier Mesa.
“We were like the Beverly Hillbillies in reverse,” says Ornstein. “We lost all our money and moved from the city to Farmington, N.M. I had all our stuff in the back of my soon-to be father-in-law’s pickup truck tied down with a garden hose!”
Ornstein got his start in the airline business as a baggage handler
There, partnered with Mesa founder Larry Risley, they took a tiny New Mexico carrier and grew its revenues from $11 million in 1987 to $350 million in 1994 through acquiring defunct airlines and making them profitable.
Ornstein left Mesa then for new challenges, overseeing the restructuring of Continental Express before meeting uber-entrepreneur Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines.
Branson tapped Ornstein to be CEO of his new Virgin Express in Belgium. It was to be a regional carrier for Europe, something most said was impossible.
“They all said you can’t have a regional airline in Europe because of the train,” says Ornstein, who spent three and half years in Belgium. “But you can if the flight is $59 and the train is $99.”
The success with Virgin inspired him for the go! idea. He and Risley had been talking about bringing an inter-island carrier to Hawaii since 1992 but had questioned whether the market could uphold three airlines.
Once they saw their competitors were maintaining 90 percent load factors, and combining that with additional fliers they could create due to the lower rates they knew now was the time.
Since coming out, Ornstein has had to slow down to become accustomed to Island lifestyle. Born and raised in New York City and cutting his business teeth in L.A. he is used to doing everything 100 mph.
To help him relax, a local tour group operator took him and the family to a beauty pageant at the Ilikai. They were more than a little surprised when they discovered it was a mahu pageant. E Komo Mai.
Buzz Saw
It's Time To Go!
With a stated goal of making inter-island air travel affordable for local folks again, Jonathan Ornstein and the new go! airlines are positioned for long-term success in Hawaii
http://www.midweek.com/content/story/midweek_coverstory/its_time_to_go/P0/
Wednesday - June 28, 2006
There are few more polarizing people in Hawaii this year than John Ornstein, CEO of the new go! airlines.
To some he is the savior of inter-island travel, reuniting long separated family and friends with $39 flights that everyone can afford.
To others he is a cutthroat haole businessman here to crush Aloha Airlines with his predatory pricing, putting thousands out of work and setting his sights on Hawaiian next.
But when the rhetoric settles, we find he is just a businessman who saw a need and is trying to fill it, and if the other airlines can’t handle it, then so be it.
“We looked at the market and we saw it wasn’t possible for most people, local people, to fly when it’s $200 roundtrip for a 15-minute flight,” says Ornstein from his offices in the commuter terminal at Honolulu International. “It was ridiculous.
With low fares and deep pockets, Jonathan Ornstein and go! are sitting pretty
“They (other airlines) are upset because there is competition. Well hell, that’s what happens in the marketplace when you charge fares that are significantly above what would regularly be considered compensatory.”
While it may be ruffling feathers with the other inter-island carriers, the local reception to the fledgling airline has been better than predicted. In the first 10 days of business it has been carrying an 80 percent load factor (translated: okoles in seats) when it had only hoped for 55 percent.
Perhaps even more important than big sales for a new business is the reaction of those onboard.
“My crew tells me how they are getting thanked every day, and that just doesn’t happen in this business,” says Ornstein with a laugh. “On the first day, I had a mother come up to me and say she was taking her sons to see their cousins for the first time in five years because before it would have cost her $1,000 to do it.”
Despite criticisms that the prices are just stunts to choke out the cash-starved Aloha Airlines, Ornstein says the prices are here to stay. They may not stay at $39, but he doesn’t see them as getting much higher than $69.
“We intend to keep low fares; this is not a gimmick,” says Ornstein. “Southwest did not establish itself as the low-fare airline by offering low prices for a month than raising their fares. We want to be the low-fare airline of Hawaii.”
The reason it can do this is by focusing on the local customers rather than the connecting flights - or code sharing, as it’s known in the industry - from major airlines. Most regional carriers work in conjunction with the airlines, transporting people from the major hubs to smaller, regional airports.
For the work, the smaller airlines get just a small part of the ticket price, around $35. The rest of the seats are sold at a premium to make up for the lost revenue.
Code sharing is how Ornstein’s parent company, Mesa Airlines, has become the second biggest regional carrier in America, through its partnerships with big boys like Delta and United. But he took this philosophy and turned it on its ear for go! in Hawaii.
“My attitude is if I’m going to sell a ticket for $35, I’d rather do it locally than as a through-fare,” says Ornstein, who believes that moderate pricing across the board is much more fair to the local consumer.
“We don’t have a transPacific business that we are trying to support effectively off the local market. We aren’t interested in connecting passengers, we are here to offer reasonable rates to people traveling between the Islands.”
Maintaining an inter-island airline only has never been successful here, but Ornstein believes that with his philosophy and the $300 million that Mesa has in the bank, they can weather the volatility of starting up an airline and becoming a trusted brand in Hawaii.
That financial security is another reason critics cite when crying foul over go!. Many believe they are going to come in here like a certain superblock store and destroy all the little guys just struggling to survive.
“We are adding 5 percent to the market and people are comparing us to Wal-Mart,” says Ornstein with a shake of his head. “Wal-Mart comes in with a store 15 times bigger than its competition. We are one-15th the size of our competitors. It’s exactly the opposite.”
When looking at the numbers, it does seem a bit Chicken Little: go! has two 45-seat jets flying currently, with plans to have a whole five planes flying by the end of July.
When passengers walk out onto the tarmac to board go!’s little converted corporate jets and they look over at the jumbo jets at the main terminal for Hawaiian and Aloha, it would seem that Ornstein should be the one who’s scared.
But that’s fine with him. He enjoys being the underdog. Back home in Phoenix, he plays in a basketball league with former college and NBA players where he is always the shortest and slowest guy on the court. His first taste of the airline industry was with Air LA, where he went from being financially successful in the securities market to baggage handling for a tiny airline.
He sold all his assets, moved from his big house into a tiny apartment and had to take a scooter to and from work. But the lessons he learned there got him a shot with the then-tiny carrier Mesa.
“We were like the Beverly Hillbillies in reverse,” says Ornstein. “We lost all our money and moved from the city to Farmington, N.M. I had all our stuff in the back of my soon-to be father-in-law’s pickup truck tied down with a garden hose!”
Ornstein got his start in the airline business as a baggage handler
There, partnered with Mesa founder Larry Risley, they took a tiny New Mexico carrier and grew its revenues from $11 million in 1987 to $350 million in 1994 through acquiring defunct airlines and making them profitable.
Ornstein left Mesa then for new challenges, overseeing the restructuring of Continental Express before meeting uber-entrepreneur Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines.
Branson tapped Ornstein to be CEO of his new Virgin Express in Belgium. It was to be a regional carrier for Europe, something most said was impossible.
“They all said you can’t have a regional airline in Europe because of the train,” says Ornstein, who spent three and half years in Belgium. “But you can if the flight is $59 and the train is $99.”
The success with Virgin inspired him for the go! idea. He and Risley had been talking about bringing an inter-island carrier to Hawaii since 1992 but had questioned whether the market could uphold three airlines.
Once they saw their competitors were maintaining 90 percent load factors, and combining that with additional fliers they could create due to the lower rates they knew now was the time.
Since coming out, Ornstein has had to slow down to become accustomed to Island lifestyle. Born and raised in New York City and cutting his business teeth in L.A. he is used to doing everything 100 mph.
To help him relax, a local tour group operator took him and the family to a beauty pageant at the Ilikai. They were more than a little surprised when they discovered it was a mahu pageant. E Komo Mai.
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