Originally Posted by JW74
You know, what strikes me as odd is that so many people are against GO! entering the market because they aren't a Hawaii airline.
Yet Hawaii welcomed K-Mart, WALMART, Chili's and Other "outside" businesses with record profit numbers and consistent rankings as "most profitable" of each kind in the Nation.
Yes, but each of the examples you cited faced the same opposition that go! is encountering. Lots of people saying that they would never buy there, the outsiders would destroy the nature of Hawaii, etc. Then, when they have a chance to buy things at a reasonable price, they flock there in droves.
Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the nation. There are several reasons for this, but one major reason is inefficient businesses that are protected from competition. One of the "nature of Hawaii" traits that is continued by this model is that many people have to work two jobs, in many cases husband and wife have 4 jobs between them, and the kids hardly ever see their parents. Small wonder that they are willing to shop at WalMart or Costco and buy the same stuff at half the price. The same thing will happen with go!
The idea that all airlines will fail, and the islands will be left with no interisland flights, is a red herring. Any airline would be delighted to move into a situation where they had proven high demand and no competition at all. Further, this idea presumes that they would all fail on the same day, which is preposterous. The last airline flying would be able to raise fares to anything they wanted them to be. If the last two airlines flying were HA and AQ, they would be able to raise the fares to anything they wanted them to be, as they seem to be pretty good at determining what the other one will charge.