Jonathan Ornstein’s mission to sink at least one of Hawaii’s two major airlines officially begins June 9, when Mesa Air Group’s new Go! subsidiary starts flying 16 daily round trips with three Bombardier CRJ200s from Honolulu to Kona, Kahului in Maui and Kauai for $39 each way. On June 30, as it adds service from Honolulu to Hilo, it plans to nearly double service to 31 round trips a day and increase the CRJ fleet to five.

Mesa CFO Peter Murnane confirmed that the company has held talks about the possibility of adding Embraer 195s, as well as Bombardier CRJ900s, to the Go! fleet. However, much will depend on how quickly and to what extent the market–and potential code-share partners–react to Mesa’s presence. As of press time Mesa had yet to sign a code-share deal, a likely prerequisite for any move to a new aircraft type.