Hawaii for a buck?

Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:10PM by Tom Barlow
Filed under: Launches, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Southwest Airlines (LUV), JetBlue Airways (JBLU)

Hawaii for a buck? Mesa Air Group's (NASDAQ: MESA) go! Airlines has nine-upped Skybus's $10 tickets by offering 2,000 $1 flights to Hawaii. The tickets, which went on sale Monday, were quickly snatched up.

The move is bound to ruffle the feathers of competitors Aloha and Hawaiian (AMEX: HA), who filed a lawsuit late last year claiming Mesa had used confidential information the two had shared with Mesa as a potential investor to launch go!'s Hawaii service. The $1 promotion can only make the fare fight fiercer, good news for vacationers to the sunny islands.

Skybus, the newest RyanAir-model entry into the industry, has gained a great deal of attention for its practice of selling ten $10 seats on each flight. The remaining seats are sold, exclusively via its web site, on a sliding scale, growing more expensive as the plane approaches capacity.

Skybus's severely no-frills approach has put price pressure on budget competitors including Southwest (NYSE: LUV), Airtran (NYSE:AAI) and JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU). At a time when passenger traffic is softening and fuel prices skyrocketing, the prospect of a mini price-war among the bottom feeders doesn't seem strong. I can still hope, though -- I really would like to visit Hawaii.

Tags: aai, air travel, air wars, airtran airlines, AirtranAirlines, AirTravel, AirWars, flights to hawaii, FlightsToHawaii, go airlines, GoAirlines, hawaii airlines, HawaiiAirlines, hawaiian airlines, HawaiianAirlines, jblu, jetblue airlines, JetblueAirlines, luv, mesa, mesa group, MesaGroup, skybus, southwest airlines, SouthwestAirlines

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-13-2007 @ 4:08PM

mattydread said...

From an investment standpoint, this is pretty interesting. But if I were shopping for plane tickets to Hawaii, I would look elsewhere out of fear that I might get what I was paying for. ;p

6-13-2007 @ 4:11PM

tom.barlow said...

Unfortunately, it's all too common to get $1 service for a $400 ticket these days. :)

9-11-2007 @ 4:44AM

Fred Parkhurst said...

Will they let you off the plane when you have a $1 ticket. It sounds very risky you try for one of the lower priced tickets and you might get stuck with a $400 one. You are playing the lotery.