Hello from bizjournals.com! David Mueller (kawika42@mac.com) thought you might like the following article from Pacific Business News: The sender's comment about the article: I don't know... Zander's quote sounds quite familiar when you remember he previously has said this merger is not necessary for Aloha's survival... try replacing "Zander" with "Wolf" and "Aloha Airlines" with "US Airways"... Airline officials differ on alternate merger plans Debbie Sokei ------------------------------------------------------------ Airline industry officials agree the pending merger of Hawaiian and Aloha airlines will be good for Hawaii. But they weren't on the same page when asked if there is an alternative plan should the merger be denied. After listening to Aloha Airlines CEO Glenn Sander, Hawaiian Airlines CEO and TurnWorks Inc. Senior Vice President Steve DeSutter discuss the economic benefits of the airline merger, Rep. Ed Case, D-Manoa, asked what would happen if the merger is denied? Zander said Aloha Airlines could not operate as "status quo." "I'm not leaving a whole lot to the imagination when I say we are not prepared to continue losing millions of dollars flying people around the interisland market," Zander said. "We will do whatever we need to do as a corporation to stop it." Since Hawaiian is a publicly traded company, Casey was limited on what he could say, but was more optimistic than Zander. "We have a plan already on a stand-alone basis," Casey said. "You witness part of that with the Seattle-Maui, San Francisco-Maui and Los Angeles-Maui routes. We would regroup with the board and decide on a plan of action." Hawaiian just added the Maui flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles. While the past six years have been the most profitable ever for the airlines industry, DeSutter said that was not the case for Aloha and Hawaiian. The airlines suffered combined net losses of approximately $63 million, DeSutter said. That, coupled with competition from other leisure destinations and an increase in direct flights from the mainland and Asia to the neighbor islands, makes it difficult for the airlines to stay in business. TurnWorks expects to add 6,500 additional inbound and outbound seats by 2005, DeSutter said. Copyright(c) American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. You can view this article on the web at: http://pacific.bcentral.com/pacific/stories/2002/01/21/daily81.html