go! Airlines and Mokulele are merging under Mesa Air Group to form go! Mokulele. This undoubtedly means higher prices for flights between the Hawaiian islands. Yuk! This comes at a time when Maui, Kauai, and The Big Island have all seen huge economic losses, and could mean further losses from those kama’aina that like to travel inter-island on a weekend getaway.

The new airline, only has to compete with Hawaiian Airlines, whose known for having higher priced tickets with it’s larger airplanes and higher carrying capacity. Only time will tell whether or note the price of your flight to Maui will increase, but we think it most likely has to.

For those of you with tickets on either go! or Mokulele, your tickets will still be valid and you can continue to book with either company, which will eventually become one seemless company as the merger continues.

Who will be the next airline to try and take a stab at inter-island travel?

To get this fare you must book your travel from now to February 28 and travel between February 1st thru 28th.  Fare rates are based on availability and some restrictions may apply, so check the airlines details via their websites… Hawaiian airlines: www.hawaiianair.com , Go! Airlines: www.iflygo.com , and Mokulele Airlines: www.mokuleleairlines.com.

But with rising gas prices and lawsuits all the Hawaii based airlines began to raise their prices. Soon we were back paying over $150 to take the 20 minute flight from Honolulu to Maui. Prices have even been observed over $200 depending on when you fly.

However, we may finally be seeing prices come back to the price wars that showed Hawaii $2 ticket prices. The price for a gallon of gas is coming down, consumer prices are dropping everywhere and Go! Airlines is finally giving us one-way tickets at less than $30 again.

That’s right, you can get a ticket from Honolulu to Maui, Honolulu to Kauai, or Honolulu to The Big Island for $27. Of course you have to fly at select times, and the prices are only valid for http://www.alohaupdate.com/?p=937 Interisland flights aren’t immune to the global increase in flight prices. While mainland flights have gone up considerably since the first of the year, so to have interisland flights making it difficult for some people to work or even see family members.

Shortly after Aloha Airlines closed it’s doors both Hawaiian and go! raised their prices and left many people angry. A ticket on go! quickly went from $39 to $49 and didn’t show signs of slowing down. Then go! airlines lost a suit which made them own Hawaiian $52 billion and ticket prices went even higher, for both companies.

Now, as I write this, ticket prices on go! airlines, the discount interisland airline, sits at $61 one way for select flights. Most flights are even more than that, especially if you want to travel on peak times. Tickets prices for round trip have been seen for well over $150.

However, with gas prices falling in Hawaii and worldwide due to decreased demand, we may see interisland air fares come down with them. I’ve already noticed a decrease in ticket prices to the mainland with west cost tickets peaking at $1000 already retreat to half the price. Hopefully tickets between the islands will do the same.

This news of fare increases is coming on the heels of news that Mesa Airlines, the parent company of the low fare competitor of interisland flights go! airlines, will pay Hawaiian Airlines $52.5 million. This was from the settlement last year that claimed that Mesa used confidential information to enter the market of interisland travel when it was thinking about helping Hawaiian out a few years back.

These prices are for off-peak flights and don’t include increase to peak flights, which I think everyone can agree have slowly been going up. It will be interesting to see how go! reacts to the news and if they can survive after having to pay Hawaiian. The fact that Aloha Airlines is closed may help the two airlines stay in business but Mesa is having it’s own troubles losing contracts with companies like Delta on mainland based flights.

Only time will tell if we’re to continue to see price increases and eventually have to pay more than we should on interisland flights. Maybe these companies should hang out with the CEO of southwest and see how they offer such cheap flights. (Although $54 one way isn’t too bad either.)

Personally, I’ve been a big fan of Aloha Airlines. The staff was always courteous, and always do give the Aloha spirit. Although I don’t normally fly to the other islands, I was glad I was able to support Aloha during my flights there. I do like Hawaiian as well, but I haven’t flown with go! Airlines. But, I’m sure that Aloha supporters will have much animosity towards go! Airlines, and that is well understood, as go! was able to insert themselves and take business away from Aloha and other competing airlines. Will go! suffer business-wise? Probably in the next few weeks with the departure of Aloha being on the news everyday since their announcement. But in the longrun, I’m sure the cheap prices from go! will be enough to get people to ride with them.

I would like to close saying “aloha” to Aloha, and thanks for serving Hawaii and their residents for a great 61 years.

This could mean the price of interisland flights will increase back to pre-go! days. If that’s so, which Hawaiian Airlines CEO has said will happen to interisland flight prices that could mean good news for the Hawaii Superferry depending on how it’s travel schedule pans out. Either way, cheap flights may be a thing of the past if this ruling holds.

Mesa has yet to comment on how the ruling will affect go! Airlines inter-island travel.

The quotes came from Hawaiian Airlines top dog, CEO and President Mark Dunkerley as he explained to a backruptcy judge what would happen if go! airlines were to leave interisland travel. The article states that he says his “company would return to pricing air tickets reasonably to cover the actual costs of transportation.”

Now we don’t know how much the increase would be but we would imagine our days of $19 flights, just announced this morning would be long gone.

The news comes as go! airlines battles it’s lawsuit from Hawaiian Airlines which could cost Mesa Air (go!’s parent company) $173 million and bar them from selling tickets in the islands for one year.

Who knows what will happen but it sounds like you should think about getting your interisland travel in soon.

go! airlines and Hawaiian airlines are offering one-way interisland flights for $19. You have to fly between now and November 30th and you must purchase your ticket by 11:59 pm tonight.

Get em fast because probably by the time I’m done typing this half of the flights will be gone.

The only catch is that the flight must occur by the end of the year. 3 airlines, 4 more months? That’s a lot of flights to choose from and it appears they’re going to be offering a lot of flights open to this new value (although that usually is never the case so we won’t hold our breath over here.)