Mesa leads interisland fare increases

The cost of flying interisland has gone up, at least for now.

Mesa Air Group Inc.'s go!, which fueled an airfare war with one-way tickets as low as $19, quietly raised its lowest fare to $39 last week -- still about half of what it cost to fly interisland before it began service June 9. Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines, which both had matched the $19 fares, also duplicated the increase.

On April 19, go! announced that $19 fares would be available on select flights and dates through Dec. 31, but never specified a date to purchase those tickets.

Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and chief executive of Mesa, said yesterday that fares "can come and go" but that the $19 fares could return at some point.

"We are going to maximize revenue, and if maximizing revenue requires us to lower fares to fill seats, we're going to do it," he said.