Airline Analyst Peter Forman on go!'s Future

Written by Howard Dicus - hdicus@kgmb9.com

October 31, 2007 01:31 PM

Peter Forman, author of "Wings of Paradise," a history of Hawaii airlines, joins KGMB9's Howard Dicus in the studio to talk about the recent ruling against Mesa Air Group. The book stops just at the founding of go! but there is much more to the story. Howard: With go!, the victim or the object of this ruling and saying it might appeal, what happens now? They're going to continue to fly for the time being, probably for many months, yes? Peter: Right. We could actually see it heating up the fare war. This is by no means finished. Howard: So from a consumer point of view, being able to fly to another island for less than it actually costs to provide the service is not going to go away anytime soon. Peter: No. I don't think so right away, but this is a really damaging blow to go!'s efforts to, what I believe is, muscle out Aloha out of the market. Howard: It's very unusual for a ruling like this. I know of many cases where companies that go through bankruptcy and share confidential information with rivals feel later that it was misused by people who didn't buy them. But I can't remember another case where a judge actually ruled that the other party was guilty. Peter: You have to sit in on the trial because the evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of Hawaiian on this one. So the decision was no surprise for those of us who sat through the trial. Watch the video for the entire interview.

Last Updated ( October 31, 2007 01:31 PM )