Both by phone and by email, readers of PlaneBuzz, many of whom are also subscribers to our flagship weekly airline financial subscription publication, PlaneBusiness Banter, called and sent emails to me -- expressing both their support and also their their outrage at the news. This is just a small sampling of the emails I have received.
"This really is unfortunate. I guess Jonathan just thinks he can bully you into not writing about the continued demise of his Hawaiian folly. Why would an investor still own stock in that company? The guy is nuts. Go get 'em."
"Holly, I am so sorry to see this. What an idiot this guy is. The airline continues to lose money hand over fist on this stupid Hawaiian operation, meanwhile the domestic operations are hurting, and he continues to go along as though nothing is wrong. And now he sues you? Sues YOU? Why? Because you simply wrote about their own pitiful attempt at defending themselves? Sorry you have to go through all this. Let me know what we can do to help."
"Where do I send the check?"
This is ridiculous. I read your posts on the trial. For god's sake, you heavily quoted third-party sources almost exclusively. And that complaint about the "Murnane nominated for idiot of the year honors?" You didn't even write the damn column. Some guy at the Washingon Post did. This guy is a real piece of work. Count me in to help. Let me know."
Thank you for always being there for all of us airline junkies even as you wend your way through the incredible maze of life. I think it is safe to say that your overarching message of practicing solid business fundamentals while still maintaining the proper humanistic “it’s the employees stupid” based strategy is an inspiration for me. I know that much of the management at my airline is couched in “How would Holly grade our strategy, actions, and operational/financial results?” IMO, if half of the senior airline management in this country read your column and took the advice/observations to heart we would have a much healthier business that would actually generate returns for our shareholders, even with $100 per bbl of oil! As for Mesa, on the “Hegeman Spectrum of Airline Right and Wrong”, Mesa now sits beyond the end of “Way Gone Wrong” by several clicks. And it’s not their employees, assets, or customers who have failed but their leadership. Mesa’s leadership has, IMO proven without a doubt that there IS indeed karma in the airline industry too and theirs is coming home to roost in a big way. So what do they do when this happens? Instead of doing the right thing they have obviously decided to shoot the messenger in a vain effort to destroy the message. Thank you Mesa for providing the rest of us many fine examples of what NOT to do! I hope for all of the good people at Mesa that someone on the Board wakes up in time to stop the destructive slide of this company before it is too late. Holly – I am proud to support your efforts to keep the message strong, clear, concise and truthful.
As an economist, the whole JO thing is so distasteful. This is an example of the incredible inefficiencies created by our legal system. With lawyers running the country, I don’t expect anything to change about our legal system anytime soon. However, it clearly shows how we are moving towards an economic system not unlike Western Europe (ex. U.K.). I see how he is distracting you, using up valuable resources, and limiting production. Now, multiply what is happening to you across the entire country and it is easy to see why it is difficult to efficiently produce in our country anymore. If we can move the production to other countries and leave only intellectual capital to manipulate that production offshore, we limit the inefficiencies brought on by frivolous lawsuits. As far as I am concerned, the behavior demonstrated by JO is purely Un-American. By this, I mean that such behavior goes against the best interests of our country’s economic well-being.
Holly, I've been subscribing to your work since back in the Motley Fool days. Wow. I guess I really am getting older. I'm a Chairman's Preferred customer with USAirways. My guess is that there are others in your blogosphere who are as well. For one, I'm going to write USAirways a note this morning to tell them that they have some market power to stop this sort of nonsense. If they want me to fly on Mesa's jets, they can use their influence to help stop this type of tactic against journalists.
Ok, now that I've read the postings, I'm even more outraged at the suit. I guess Ornstein and Co. do not read political blogs much. You are tame. You did not accuse him (directly anyway) of being a Muslim, a lesbian, an atheist, anti-enthanol, pro-illegal immigration, nor did you accuse him of calling anyone a "macaca" (kudos to my former Sen. George Allen for the last one). Was what you wrote lawsuit worthy? No. Was it going to get you invited to Thanksgiving dinner? Well, that's another matter. Kick their ass.