Ever since Mesa, Arizona-based go! Airlines launched in Hawaii, the price of airfare has dropped in a manner that can only be described as shocking. Whereas inter-island travel between Oahu and the Neighbor Islands (mostly Kauai, Maui and the Big Island) once cost upwards of $120 one way, go! debuted its fleet of airplanes for only $19 for a one-way ticket.
This has caused a flurry of price-matching on the side of Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines, Hawaii’s two main airlines who had no former competitors in the inter-island market.
Needless to say, both Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines were not happy with this new, low-priced competitor. Hawaiian Airlines is in the process of suing go! Airlines, saying that go! Airlines used confidential information from Hawaiian Airlines. Of course, go! denies it and says that Hawaiian is just trying to kill the competition so it can raise prices again.
What does go! have to say about this?
In an email first sent to recipients of its newsletter, go! said matter-of-factly that “competition is good!” To underscore their belief in this, they are offering a “Competition is Good!” sale and dropping their prices to the same $19 benchmark that they did when they first arrived in Hawaii.
“go! through November 30, 2007 with amazing $19 one-way fares!” says the email. “We are offering $19 fares on flights from October 2 through November 30, 2007. These great deals are only available for purchase until Wednesday night!??Hurry, tickets are on sale now and must be purchased by Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 11:59pm at www.iflygo.com. Black out dates of November 21, 23 and 25, 2007, apply.”
Tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable and are obviously limited and selling fast. Many seats have already been sold when I last checked online this afternoon. All prices don’t include the $8.40 in additional fees and taxes.
Hawaii residents are obviously happy with such price drops, which have become relatively frequent in Hawaii’s rapidly-changing airline sector. The prices occasionally drop even lower than the current $19 benchmark. Earlier this year, there was one day where airplane tickets between the Hawaiian islands were only $1. In all of these cases, go! Airlines was the initiator of the price war and Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines followed suit.
“I think it’s awesome,” says one resident from the island of Kauai, Hawaii’s northernmost inhabited major island. “I definitely travel to Oahu a lot more. Before, it was a once-a-year thing, but with airplane tickets so cheap, I can definitely travel more often to see family and friends in other parts of Hawaii. All this wouldn’t be possible if go! hadn’t come to Hawaii,” he says.
