go! Is No Aloha

A bankruptcycourt judge has blocked Mesa Air Group from renaming its go! subsidiary Aloha, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports.

“Mesa succeeded in inflicting great harm, not only upon the Aloha corporate entities, but also upon thousands of Aloha employees and their families,” Judge Lloyd King  wrote. … “It is difficult to imagine a court overlooking what Mesa has done and putting its stamp of approval on Mesa’s subsidiary, go!, becoming Aloha.”

In other words: I knew Aloha Airlines, I flew Aloha Airlines and you are no Aloha Airlines.

A price war with go! in the Hawaiian interisland market is widely blamed for driving Aloha out of business. That bitter history is one reason to block the appropriation of the name.

Another is that allowing go! to pretend to Aloha’s 80 years of interisland flying experience would be misleading to the public. As a pilot recently pointed out to me about commuter airlines flying under the brands of the major airlines, customers have a right to know exactly whose plane they’re getting on.