In the past week, as seen below, an all-white CRJ with go! titles has been seen flying out of HNL. Today, another one was spotted on the ramp. N77278 was parked amongst two other CRJs in the normal go! livery as well as an Aloha 737-700. Is this a move by go! to be prepared to secure Aloha's passengers should their bankruptcy end in a chapter 7? Or are they simply rotating aircraft in and out without spending the money on the full livery? There are plenty of rumors floating around and only time will tell.
Could be ... but it has been almost two years since go! invaded Hawai‘i. I would think some of their CRJs are due for heavy maintenance of some sort, and they really don't have a maintenance base here.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember when Go! first came over, Mesa said the CRJ's might someday be replaced by another type of aircraft.
ReplyDeleteSaltChuck Resources; parent company of Young Brothers, and owner of Northern Air Cargo (732 operator in Alaska) has submitted a letter of intent to purchase Aloha's cargo business.
The Advertiser today reports that go has 7 CRJs in the islands now. They were planning on sending 2 back to the mainland for maintenance, but they have kept them here until the Aloha situation is more settled.
ReplyDeleteI received an email from a source familiar with the go!/Mesa ops ...
ReplyDelete"The paint job takes 8 days as the wave is hand painted on… and costs about $175,000 JUST for the wave. All of the go! CRJ’s are on 2 – 3 year leases, cause at the time of go! JO was adamant about moving CRJ 900s out there, but those aircraft have not yet been sourced. The 2 “white tails” are temporary to cover heavy checks, as I think 651BR or 654BR (or both) are due for heavy checks.
Last year, they sent 2 back for heavy, with only 1 to return."