Idea man mystified by
report of new Hawaii airline
The brainchild behind a new airline for Hawaii said his idea is not even in the embryonic stage and that a published report last week indicating a formal announcement would be made in mid-April left him "speechless."
Franco Mancassola, who brought the ill-fated Discovery Airways into interisland competition in 1989, said his idea of launching West Coast service to Honolulu on an airline called Blue Hawaii is nothing more than a feasibility study. He said he was "at a loss" to explain reported comments by Jack Bates, the former chairman and chief executive of Starr Seigle Communications Inc., regarding a planned announcement of a new Hawaii airline by a California-based company, Fly Blue Hawaii Airlines.
Bates was paraphrased as saying he was a minority investor with an investor group, and that three or four wide-body planes would be leased from Boeing Capital Corp. or Airbus. Bates also reportedly said the concept is in the preliminary stage and that the investor group is looking at possibly patterning its business model after low-cost carrier JetBlue.
"There must be 300 (airline) feasibility studies out there, even about people wanting to fly to the moon," said Mancassola, who began studying the Blue Hawaii idea two years ago and has a Web site, www.flybluehawaii.com.
"The world is full of airline wannabees," added Mancassola in a telephone call from the United Kingdom, where he was traveling.
Bates, who resigned at least two months ago from his position as Starr Seigle's representative on the Hawaiian Airlines' unsecured creditors' committee, refused to return three phone calls to his home. The person who answered the phone said he was "unavailable."
Starr Seigle has filed a proof of claim against Hawaiian Airlines for $817,524.
Mancassola, who lives near Rome but often stays in Hawaii for extended visits, said a group conducted a feasibility study more than two years ago that included flying daily flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
"Jack was one of the guys who was helping put together the study, but it never went any further than a feasibility study," said Mancassola, who acknowledged that Bates probably was interested in being a potential investor.
Mancassola said he hasn't even discussed the project for several months.
"There are no aircraft. Nobody ever talked to Boeing or Airbus. All I can say is that a group of people are interested in a carrier that serves Hawaii," Mancassola said.
"A preliminary study is ongoing to see what, how, when and if, but that's about it. It's not even an embryo. It's a feasibility study."
Airline analyst Robert Mann said he's skeptical that a start-up airline in the crowded West Coast-Hawaii market could be successful.
"It's not only crowded, but the current players are increasing the amount of service that they offer," said Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, N.Y. "They're actually increasing the number of nonstop markets and the total seating capacity. To be successful, you either have to offer more service or lower prices, and probably both. That's a tough combination to be able to afford more service at a lower price. It just makes you wonder how realistic it is."
Mann said a start-up airline takes a minimum of eight to nine months from inception to the initiation of flights, and that the average start-up today is taking more than a year.
Mann also said it takes about a million dollars in out-of-pocket expenses just to get to the starting point and substantially more to be able to survive.
Other requirements, Mann said, are a financial and business plan review by the U.S. Department of Transportation and safety or operating authority from the Federal Aviation Administration, plus access to airports' terminal, gate and baggage facilities.
Officials from Hawaiian and Aloha airlines declined to comment on the proposed carrier, while a person with industry knowledge said he wasn't aware of any conversations between Blue Hawaii representatives and Boeing Capital.
Mann said getting involved in the airline industry often is seen as a glamorous venture.
"I often refer to this as the silk scarf disease, which is to say everybody wants to be an aviator with a silk scarf trailing behind them in an open cockpit," he said. "I don't see in this type of marketplace a substantial probability of success."
Mancassola said he wouldn't "hold his breath" for an April announcement, but said he'd like to be in Hawaii if one did occur.
"I'd be in the first row," he said. "I may learn something I don't know."