Mainline flightless
The would-be discount
airline has called it quits
A mainland-based startup has dropped its plans to run an airline offering one-way tickets for as little as $89 from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
Mainline Airways, in a message to the state Office of Consumer Protection, said it is processing refunds to people who booked on its Web site and expects to have everyone repaid by the end of this week.
It has given up, in part, because of a media image that it was a "fake airline," Luke R. Thompson, chief executive officer, said yesterday. He said that image was created partly by publicity surrounding state actions against Mainline.
The Office of Consumer Protection declined to comment on Thompson's remarks.
State officials reported yesterday that they had obtained a temporary restraining order against Mainline, telling it to quit taking payments for Hawaii bookings. The state is seeking a permanent injunction that would stop any more sales until the airline satisfies state and federal permit requirements.
Mainline, which started in Wellesley, Mass., and says it is now based in Henderson, Nev., has no aircraft or crews but was maintaining as recently as Monday that it expected to have a charter deal in place soon that would let it meet its announced July 3 launch.
Yesterday, however, Mainline dropped that plan, saying that instead of being a tour operator, selling tickets for a charter operation run by qualified and registered people, it may try for its own operating certificates in the future.
In a letter to state officials copied to the news media, Thompson said his company had taken only 120 "pre-reservations," insisting they were not actual ticket sales. All are covered by terms of a credit-card merchant account that gets them repaid in full if the seller does not provide the service, he said.
The formal decision not to provide that service opens the way for repayment, Thompson said.
"We have decided to voluntarily and permanently cancel all plans of chartering aircraft between LAX and HNL due to several factors," his statement said.
Thompson told the state officials that nearly all of the negative factors came from bad publicity relating to the state's action, plus "overall lackluster sales."
Thompson said holding off on making the required registration with the U.S. Department of Transportation, while it tried to work out a deal with a charter operator, meant Mainline wasn't treated as serious competition by existing airlines. "But we also avoided being treated seriously by our customers," he said.