Mainline Air offers
traced to college kidMassachusetts officials
say a freshman created
the ticketing Web site
BOSTON >> The airline that was offering super-low fares between Honolulu and Los Angeles was nothing more than a Web site created by an 18-year-old freshman at Babson College, the Massachusetts attorney general said yesterday.
Attorney General Thomas Reilly won a temporary restraining order Wednesday that bars Luke Thompson, of Yardley, Pa., from using any bank accounts associated with his business, Mainline Airways, for any reason other than to provide refunds to customers.
"Mr. Thompson has been grounded," Reilly said.
Reilly is suing, alleging that Mainline Airways had been selling tickets for months on flights scheduled to begin July 3 but, with just a few weeks to go, had neither planes nor crews nor the permits and approvals to operate flights.
Reilly alleged that Thompson incorporated the business in Pennsylvania during his freshman year, established a Wellesley address for it and set up an elaborate Web site, www.mainlineairways.com.
The Web site has now been taken down, but Reilly provided printouts from the site that described the company's "airline fleet," outlined various policies and answered travelers' questions.
"The Internet is a wonderful resource," Reilly said. "It makes so much of our life easier. But this is a reminder of how careful we must be. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true."
Mainline Airways had offered fares as low as $89 between Los Angeles and Honolulu.
Authorities in Hawaii filed suit against Thompson and Mainline last week, and a judge ordered ticket sales halted. Reilly's office said his court action was intended to "protect consumers from any further harm and provide additional assistance not covered by Hawaii's court order."
A message left for Thompson at his Yardley residence was not immediately returned. There is no listing for Mainline Airways in Wellesley.
Thompson faxed letters earlier this week to Hawaii officials, saying Mainline had received 120 "pre-reservations" and promising to refund the money by the end of the week.
"We had every intention of operating, but we cannot fill the planes now when the people of Hawaii are under the assumption that we are a fake airline," the letter said.
The letter also said Mainline Airways planned simply to arrange charter flights.
"As we have said many times, we were not to operate our own airline, so we are not an airline, we are Mainline Airways, not airlines, and were only to be the tour operator," the letter said.
Reilly said he would not speculate on whether criminal charges might be brought against Thompson.
Babson College spokesman Michael Chmura said Thompson had attended the college, a business-oriented school that emphasizes entrepreneurship, in the academic year that just ended.
"Babson College is assisting the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in its investigation and is conducting its own investigation into the matter," said Chmura.