HAWAII | AIRFARES

Fliers jump on $9 Hawaiian fares from Go!

By Brian Charlton, From the Associated Press
08:52 AM PDT, May 30, 2007

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Passengers quickly took advantage of Hawaii's latest airfare war after three airlines last weekend advertised $9 one-way trips (plus fees and taxes) between islands.

Most of the low fares, which Phoenix-based Go! had introduced Sunday for travel Friday to Sept. 30, 2007, were sold out by Tuesday. Although a few $9 fares remained for late August and September, most flights were listed at $29 to $79, plus fees and taxes.

But the discounter said it plans to expand the promotion through December, releasing more cheap tickets.

Both Hawaiian and Aloha had matched Go!'s prices, the cheapest since the airline, owned by Mesa Air Group Inc., started flying Hawaii inter-island routes last June.

Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and chief executive of Mesa, said the $9 fares were meant to drive passengers to his company's website and to persuade Hawaii residents to try the upstart service.

"We're trying to pry people away from loyalty programs," Ornstein told the Associated Press. "To really break into the marketplace, sometimes you have to do outlandish things."

The effort seemed to be working.

Ornstein said Go!, which had captured less than 10% of the inter-island market, had more than 1,000 passengers sign up for frequent-flier programs during the Memorial Day weekend, and 350 signed up for e-mail alerts of special rates.

The airline declined to release the number of tickets offered, but it said thousands were released for the four-month period for flights between Honolulu and Kahului, Lihue, Hilo or Kailua-Kona.

Both Aloha and Hawaiian, the state's two biggest carriers, declined comment Tuesday.