Outcry from Mesa Pilots in Hawaii

They say it happens more than you realize. Pilots tell us they’re so exhausted they fall asleep at the controls. Now, there’s more proof and more controversy.

While federal investigators haven’t determined if that was the case, people in the airline industry nationwide are talking about it and telling us about it.

KGMB9’s Stacy Loe first broke the story and continues her investigation.

Since our story aired, I’ve received more than 50 e-mails from pilots across the country.

Many claim to be current or former Mesa airlines employees who say this is a problem that needs to be addressed. Some of their claims are chilling. They agreed to go on the record, if we did not use their names.

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The author of the book Wings of Paradise, Hawaii’s Incomparable Airlines also runs a blog at airlinesofhawaii.blogspot.com.

Peter has written many insightful essays on Mesa Airlines and Jonathan Ornstein since the Air War started over 18 months ago.

His latest article Someone Just Blinked is now available. I urge all the Mesa pilots and LAMA’s to take 2 or 3 minutes and read it.

Peter Forman once again nails it with his analysis that by Mesa Airlines recently raising Hawaii’s airfares from $39 to $49, Ornstein indeed just blinked in his corporate game of chicken.

Peter writes, ‘go! has shifted its fare strategy from one of “victory at any cost” to one of damage control.’

While this may seem like good news for the employees of all three airlines, any hope that a legal settlement may be in the works soon might prove to be far fetched.

Peter wisely predicts ‘Don’t hold your breath for logical behavior in this contest’. Any of us who have ever dealt with Jonathan Ornstein all know exactly what Peter talking about here.

As we all know, Jonathan Ornstein is a self promoting narcissistic sociopath still intent on revenge, as long as he remains in ‘control’ of Mesa Airlines all bets are still off.

The owners of Hawaiian and Aloha have probably figured out by now that they are trying to negotiate with a madman. This has got to be incredibly frustrating for legitimate business people such as those at Ranch Capital or the Yucaipa Cos.

Jonathan Ornstein can’t accept any logical setlement. J.O. won’t accept anything except total defeat. This is certain.

Jonathan Ornstein predicted this himself back in this November 2006 Trouble in Paradise article, “If you guys want to make it to the death. Have it your way. We’ve been tame so far. Very tame.”

So there you have it, there wont be any ‘negotiating’ with Mesa over go! There is only one way this can end, lets get it over with already we are all getting very tired of this.

We have no confidence in Jonathan Ornstein. At this time a hostile takeover of Mesa Air Group would be welcomed by the employees.

Bring it on.

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Jonathan Ornstein will finally get around to the Mesa Air Group September (Q4 2007) conference call, now almost four months late. Rumors abound what will be discussed. Listen to it live at Yahoo! Finance. Monday Morning Jan 14, 2008, 1:00 pm Eastern time. 

go! Airlines continues to bleed Mesa of precious cash. Mesa’s experiment of a viable “stand alone airline” has failed. Let’s see how wrong Ornstein was about this “experiment”. All following quotes come from late 2005 when go! Airlines was first announced as “Project Hele” or at that time, more commonly known as “Mesa’s new Hawaii airline”

Jonathan Ornstein; “We can fly planes empty and cover it. The Hawaii operation costs about $20 million to $25 million a year — we can lose that much money. We can cover it.”

“We think the inter-island market has the potential for long-term profits,” Ornstein said. We look at it as something fun to do for the company. It is independent, which makes it a more interesting operation. “It is not as if we are putting the company at risk”

“it will tie up only 2.5 percent of Mesa’s capacity. Because we have a very profitable operation on the mainland, we can operate aircraft there for a very, very, very long time. We think that with the 50-seaters, we won’t do much worse than break even.”

“We will transition to 90-seat or larger aircraft when they become available - that may be 12 to 18 months down the road depending upon market demand,” Ornstein said, adding that the carrier may fly B737s if there is enough demand - and if it has the labor flexibility. “We know that the 50-seat is not always the most appropriate,”

Ornstein acknowledges it won’t be a “slam dunk” but said Mesa is not betting the company on go! like regional airline Atlantic Coast Airlines did when it severed its airline partnerships and overnight became Independence Air. The airline went out of business earlier this year.

“We’re doing this (go! Airlines) on a very limited basis,” he said. “It’s 1 1/2% of our capacity, and it won’t become a whole lot more than that unless its successful.”

Let’s see who else was wrong about go! Airline, described by Jonathan Ornstein as “something fun to do for the company”.

• Mesa’s BOD; “We [the board] trust him, and he’s proven to be worthy of our trust,” said Maurice Parker, a director on Mesa’s board since 1998. “We think this is a great move for Mesa, and it’s going to be profitable.”

• Mesa’s Stockholders; Ornstein comes to Hawaii with deep pockets — an operational cash flow of $120 million — and the indulgence of stockholders who like the fact that he runs a profitable airline in this era of bankruptcies.

• Regional Aviation News; Mesa Air Group [MESA] will launch a new carrier tailored for the inter-island travel of the Hawaiian islands, serving five major cities. It may not look anything like the current model of a regional carrier. It may look like a throwback to the old independent, commuter carriers. Or it could be the airline of the future.

Those of us not working on Monday should listen to the conference call live on Yahoo! Finance where we can find out how much longer the “airline of the future” will last on lies and con games. For those of our readers still working for this toilet of an operation, join the 500 other Mesa pilots that quit last year and get on with life!

I finish this weekends article with this November 2005 quote from Ornstein;

“Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein said Aloha’s demise would clearly be good for business… Ornstein told PBN. “But I won’t deny that if a significant part of the capacity were to go away, it clearly would make our business a lot better. No doubt about that.”

Ornstein’s recklessly bet all of Mesa, formerly a $1 Billion a year operation on the go! attempt to bankrupt Aloha Airlines. The final bill which includes lying to Federal judges, suing girls, ex-employees and throwing best friends under the bus with ridiculous tall tales like the “porn at 40 feet” defense is still open and has yet to be finally tallied.

Finally, our winner of 2005 predictions on go!, the CEO of Hawaiian Airlines,

Mark Dunkerly; Hawaiian’s CEO, said he has no doubts on how that scene will play out. “Hawaii’s seen a third interisland competitor before and it has always ended the same way,” he said, referring to the unsuccessful efforts by Mahalo, Discover and others. “I’ve no doubt that the reshowing of the same movie will have the same ending. This is a declining market and the idea that somehow there’s room for an enormous capacity is fanciful.”

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Honolulu Advertiser mentions MESA may be de-listed by Nasdaq

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Mesa disclosed that it may be subject to delisting by the Nasdaq stock exchange for not filing its year-end and quarterly financials on schedule.

Last month, Mesa said it will delay the filing of its financials until Jan. 15 due to complications over its reviews of estimates and reserves.

Brian Gillman, Mesa executive vice president and general counsel, said he anticipates that the company will file its financials with the SEC on or by Jan. 15, or well before any delisting proceeding.

Shares of Mesa closed at $2.70 on the Nasdaq market, which was up 2 cents from Thursday’s close. Since the June 9, 2006, launch of go!, Mesa’s shares have fallen more than 69 percent and the company’s market capitalization has dropped by more than $179 million.

The true cost of go!

69% drop in market capitalization = $179 MILLION
Losing to Hawaiian in court = $90 Million
Total actual CASH LOSS so far (NO LESS THAN) = $269 MILLION

• Delisting by NASDAQ next?
• Interest on bond of $175K a month
• Any further new business will be considered a “risk” by potential investors
• Even go!’s only codeshare Mokulele, now shuns Mesa and is repainting their Caravans in expectation of the inevitable.

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Yampa Valley Regional Airport “Steamboat Springs, Colorado” has finally gotten United Airlines to replace Mesa Airlines (NASDAQ: MESA) with Skywest (NASDAQ: SKYW) in what is being called “a long-overdue deal”

Andy Wirth, Ski Corp.’s executive vice president of sales and marketing and chief marketing officer for Intrawest (said) “Everybody should take a moment to celebrate this.”

‘We need better’

Many say the upgraded service is long overdue.

Proponents of quality commercial air service to Steamboat have had some turbulent times in recent years with the United Express service to DIA.

That turbulence came to a head in March 2006, when a delegation of Yampa Valley officials traveled to Chicago to discuss service issues on the route between YVRA and DIA. Concerns included on-time performance and the number of flights canceled by the service, operated by Mesa Airlines as a United Express carrier.

There was an article written about this “turbulence” with Mesa Airlines cancellations and the fit Jonathan Ornstein threw when he learned that a community went directly to United to complain about their lack of service from Mesa.

Does anybody remember this article from 2006?

Time flies in the not-so-friendly skies
Mesa CEO angry over assertions about on-time flights, service

Mesa Airlines angrily rejected the assertions and demanded a public apology.

“Those statements are absolutely false, malicious and untrue,” said Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and CEO of Mesa Air Group. “They are potentially damaging to our relationship with United. We will not stand by and allow that to happen.”

(Newsflash! it just did happen Jonathan!)

Ornstein said he would accept nothing less than a public apology from the community leaders.

I dont think Jonathan Ornstein ever got his apology.

Oh well.

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I found the actual video from WFAA last year about Mesa Airlines pilot pushing.

Student pilots and CFI’s that want to know what it is like at Mesa must watch this video. Then be sure to know it is actually much worse.Don’t forget to share this video with your friends and remember NO CELL PHONES! Click on the picture for the actual video.

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Fellow current and former Mesa Pilots and employees welcome!

In 1992, fifteen years ago, Jonathan Ornstein was found guilty by the SEC and fined with a multiyear suspension as a stockbroker–his prior career. The SEC cited unauthorized trading, misrepresentation and frustrating investigators. Ornstein’s official disciplinary record printout back then: 21 feet long.

That document is being hosted here for you to download and print out!

Over the past 17 years the leopard did not change his spots. He has only become a bigger liar. Instead of “unauthorized trading” with his customers accounts, he is now using revenue from a $1Billion a year airline as his personal cash cow to fund offshore holding companies (for him and his college buddy Peter Murnane) and frivolous lawsuits against all his critics.

This document (SEC vs JGO) has now become “Trial Exhibit #1″ in the Hawaiian vs Mesa lawsuit. The document was presented to Judge Faris by HAL to show that Jonathan Ornstein is a lifetime liar with no regard for the law or the courts. In 1992, the SEC did not believe the explanation that his actions were ‘misunderstandings’ and essentially called him a liar.

THE PRESENT JONATHAN ORNSTEIN

In September 2007, Jonathan Ornstein testified under oath in the State of Hawaii Bankruptcy Court that “he alone” made the decision to enter the Hawai’i market and that other employees such as Murnane had no bearing on that decision.

Now seventeen years later we have another judge who feels compelled to publish a comment about Ornstein personally.

Judge Faris comment?, “I simply did not believe that testimony,”.

The past is the key to the present, Ornstein will not change. There may be an honor among theives and codes for other criminals but under no circumstances can liars be trusted. Come on folks, this is an airline he is controlling. Tell the world we have no confidence in Mr. Ornstein. We can all petition the DOT to remove this man from the airlines permanently as they did to Frank Lorenzo in years past.

Individuals can make a difference. Go to this helpful website for other ways we can get involved and pressure the government to remove JO for good.

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