Now No. 2, go! has its own money challenges - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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So now the question is whetherthe Phoenix-based airline can handle the Aviation industry experts say go!'s fleet of 50-passenger CRJ-200s can't handle the passenged load needed to successfully compete against No. 1 . Jonathanj Ornstein agrees. "We have said from the very beginnin that we were looking at bigger said Ornstein, president and CEO of go! parentf company . "But that's still a little bit down the We may not need to expand capacity or add more but flying 10 flights ona 90-seatefr would be much more cost efficient than flying 17 flightsa on a 50-seater." Go!
this week increases its daily interisland flights from 54 to 94 and is bringingy in an eighth plane later this But even those flightxs don't add up to the capacitg left by Aloha, whose 737s carried aboutr 130 passengers between the Islands. Aloha stillk carried about one-third of Hawaii interisland passengers in includingsome 760,000 to the Big Island and 740,000o to Maui. If go! is to claimj Aloha's position and Mesa has to quickly reverse its downward revenued trajectory and woo back localcustomers who, stunned by Aloha's may prefer Hawaiian over go!
"I think two carriers can be accommodatec and survive and serve said George Hamlin, managing director of ACA an aviation and aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Va. "Mes a would not have entered themarkert otherwise. "But this is not a wildluy profitable market, and there have been barrier to others tryingto enter. Has anyonre ever made any real moneyin it?" Mesa and all airlines are struggling with the sudden increase in jet fuel up 69 percent in the past year. But farew have only risen incrementally, draining profits from an industryh that had just started to recoverr from the 2001 recession and the 11 attacks.
"I don't know what their cash balanc e is, but if Mesa were to lose eitherrthe [$80 million] Hawaiian lawsuitg appeal or the Aloha lawsuit, that wouldc be a significant blow," Hamlin referring to two lawsuits filed against Mesa by the Hawaik airlines. Demand for Mesa's regional services on the Mainland, "has slackened considerably," he said. Throughj code-sharing operations, Mesa operates as US Airways Delta Connection andUnitesd Express. It also flies independently as andas go! Expres through Hawaii-based Mokulele Airlines. That translates into more than 180 aircraftr with morethan 1,10o0 daily departures to 170 cities in 46 Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.
And in October, Mesa launched a joint venture with Shenzhen Airlinese in China to fly regional routes Butthe company, which employees 5,00 and generates revenue exceeding $1.4 billio annually, also is losing money. Thanks to the Hawaiian rulint and troubles with its AirMidwest Mesa's losses in 2007 totaled $81.5 million, a sharp contrast to the $33.90 million profit in 2006. Mesa lost $2.8 million in the firsgt quarterof 2008. Mesa also is dealing with the publix relations nightmare over reports thattwo go! pilots fell aslee while flying the 200 miles from Honolulu to Hilo in The pilots were firer and the Federal Aviation Administratiom is investigating.
And on Tuesday, Mesa complained publicly that Deltsa Air Lines intended to terminate the DeltaConnection agreement, a potentialluy costly development.