Mesa's Air Midwest to Halt All Flights by June 30

[brooklynite]

Source: Bloomberg

Air Midwest, which flies to 27 mostly small cities, will discontinue all flights by June 30, becoming the sixth U.S. carrier to halt operations since March as fuel prices reach record highs and travel demand weakens.

The shutdown will start May 23, Air Midwest parent Mesa Air Group Inc. said today. Air Midwest's service includes a government program that subsidizes carriers for operating at mainly small, rural airports. The unit also makes some flights for US Airways Group Inc.

Mesa is halting Air Midwest after saying in January that it would start to liquidate the unit, which began operations 43 years ago. Phoenix-based Mesa said it received no "credible offers" after it began seeking a buyer last year for the unprofitable unit or its 20 Beechcraft 1900D turboprop planes.

"The losses were too great and there was no real end in sight," said Brian Gillman, Mesa's general counsel. "We reached the point where we couldn't continue to fund the loss of millions of dollars."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mesa15-2008may15,0,3577841.story

[rsmith6621]

1. And CEO Ornstein Keeps His Job and Bonuses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii's_airline_Employees_Repelling_Ornstein


.....This guy is a shark and a bastard.......

[DemoTex]

4. Ornstein is cut of the same cloth as Frank Lorenzo ..

And Steve Wolf.

[kestrel91316]

2. Six airlines bankrupt in last two months.......

I guess it's not important to Bush. He must not have owned stock in any of them.

[regnaD kciN]

7. Which are the others...?

I remember Aloha, ATA, Frontier, and now Air Midwest. What are the other two?

[kestrel91316]

8. I don't recall. I got 6 from an article about Air Midwest, I think.

[KamaAina]

3. Call it karma. Out here we call it "bachi".

Same deal. Mesa subsidiary go!, with its predatory pricing, was the prime mover behind the demise of Aloha, the first of these airborne dominoes to fall.

Of course, if Mesa itself goes down, as has been rumored, that leaves Hawaiian with a near-monopoly on the interisland market... :scared:

edit: there'd still be Island Air and a couple of even smaller ones, but still...

[alstephenson]

6. What's up with that?

They drive Aloha out of business, then fold? I'm sure there is more to this story....

[KamaAina]

9. go! has not folded -- yet.

This is a different subsidiary of Mesa. But, Mesa as a whole has been mentioned as being on the "watch list", as it were, and if it goes, go! goes with it.

[alstephenson]

10. Thanks for the clarification, KA.

[lonestarnot]

5. Couldn't make it on people who would work for nothing?

WTF is this world coming to?