Gary Chase, analyst with Lehman Brothers, posted a midnight oil research note tonight on the departure of John Harvey from JetBlue.

Chase says to expect some “near-term weakness” in JetBlue’s shares, especially tomorrow. However, he also does not see this news as being indicative of any “imminent breakdown” in JetBlue’s fundamentals.

However, Chase also commented,

“This news comes at a bad time.  Oil is reaching new highs almost daily and concern about competitive impact from Virgin America among other things are weighing on JBLU sentiment specifically. JBLU is heavily shorted (highest short interest in the group) amid concerns about Virgin impact especially.  To boot, on the surface, it looks very expensive.  Bottom line, the path of least resistance is to be negative for tomorrow and possibly the next several trading sessions.

Now for the not so obvious…

We believe JBLU is a company in need of restructuring. Its valuation on current consensus is not the issue.  Its true earnings potential is the issue, in our view.  Importantly, we see significant upside opportunity on the cost side of the ledger and in the potential for larger network restructuring.”

Ticker: (JBLU:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline analysts, airline earnings, airline industry news, airline stocks, airlines, jetBlue

Late day announcement today from JetBlue that says CFO John Harvey has resigned as CFO of JetBlue. We hear that is not exactly the case. Sounds to us like Harvey was pushed. By the JetBlue board of directors.

The airline said in its release that SVP of Finance Ed Barnes has been named interim CFO.

Looks like it’s shake, rattle and roll time at the carrier. The airline recently also showed its previously  highly touted EVP and Chief Revenue Officer Trey Urbahn the door. Although in his case there was no press release announcing his departure.

No surprise here.

American Airlines today told the airline’s pilot union thanks, but no thanks, to the union’s most recent contract proposal.

According to American’s response to the Allied Pilots Association, the proposed package would have increased American’s pilot costs by more than $1.4 billion a year and would have brought the pilot cost per hour to a level that was more than that of competitors Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines combined.

In other news, Bloomberg reports that a seniority agreement that had been negotiated between American, American Eagle, and their respective pilot unions has collapsed. The reason? A disagreement over adding 25 additional regional jets to the Eagle fleet.

The agreement, reached Oct. 24, would have preserved seniority rights for American pilots and helped recruit new pilots at the commuter unit.

The issue now will now be decided by an independent arbitrator, the APA told members in a message today.

Ticker: (AMR:NYSE)

For those of you who are followers of the ongoing Mesa Air Group/Hawaiian affair, I have a tidbit to share with you today.

And the most remarkable, ironic, or telling part of all this? (Take your pick.) It comes compliments of Mesa’s own website.

It can’t get much better than this guys.

Just a hint. If you want to see the pictures we’re talking about live, you’d better act fast, because I’m sure they will be removed pretty quickly. Then again, for those of you who aren’t quite as fast, don’t worry. We’ve made copies of the page, and the pictures. (We are posting all links below.)

But for those eager beavers who read this quickly enough, if you want to see what interesting thing we found today while scrolling the Mesa website, first, open your browser and go to the Mesa Air Group home page.

Scroll down to the section on the recent launch festivities involving Kunpeng Airlines, the regional joint venture created by Shenzhen Airlines and Mesa Air. Headline is “Kunpeng Airlines Launches Services in China.” Check out that fake fog while you’re at it. (Well it was around Halloween.)

Click on the link that says “MORE” in that section. It will bring up an entire page of full resolution photos. Not minimal JPG sizes. Oh, no, full resolution photographs. (That will become important here in a minute.)

The picture that caught our eye is on the next to the bottom row — one picture towards the right. It’s the one with the huge flower artwork on the wall behind a number of people seated at a long table.

Direct link to the photo.

When the photo is downloaded,  it is identified by the Mesa Air Group site with a moniker that includes  “Kunpeng Launch.” As you can see, it is in a group of other pictures that were clearly also of the various launch festivities. When did this particular occur? Well, the launch was officially Friday the 27th of October. So, it could have been the 26th, the 27th or the 28th.

Now, here’s the point of my web adventure.

Look who’s seated next to Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein at the official event.

To his right — with, appropriately, an open laptop in front of him? (I know, at this point it’s becoming more and more like a skit from Saturday Night Live.)

While he seems to be somewhat pre-occupied with a napkin in the photo, and not what is on his laptop, there’s no question the person seated next to Jonathan is Peter Murnane. In fact, because the photo was uploaded in its full resolution — you can clearly make out his name on the little white name placeholder in front of him. George Peter Murnane III no less.

But wasn’t Peter on administrative leave from the company at the end of October?

A little historical perspective here for those who took a cruise to Alaska in October.

On Sept. 21, Mesa Air Group sent out a press release. In that release, it stated that the Board of Directors of the airline had put  Peter Murnane on “administrative leave.” In the press release, Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein said, “Our policy is to comply with only the highest ethical standards of conduct and, if we become aware of a potential or alleged violation of such standards, to conduct an appropriate investigation and to take appropriate remedial action when warranted. We will report the outcome of the Company’s investigation as soon as it is completed.”

“Until the investigation is complete, William Hoke, Vice President of Finance will continue to be responsible for the financial and accounting functions of the Company and will perform the duties of Mr. Murnane,” the release said.

As you recall, it was just a few days later that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris ruled that Murnane had intentionally destroyed files that Mesa had used before launching its airline go! These files had been sought as part of the trial’s discovery process. This was the ruling that came after the porn-made-me-do-it defense by Murnane.

I’ll let all of you talk amongst yourselves about this. Goodness knows there is enough to chew on.

For those of you who didn’t go see what we saw today soon enough, here are the pertinent copies.

PDF of the page of Mesa’s Kunpeng launch pictures

Photo in question

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, airline industry news, airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Jonathan Orstein, Mesa Airlines, Peter Murnane

One of the biggest changes announced today is this one.  If you are a heavy-use business traveler that flies Southwest, that is, if you fly 32 one-way trips in one year, you will get the best available boarding pass available when you book any fare. In other words, if there are already the maximum number of “A” group boarders when you check in, you’ll get an automatic “B” or whatever. But the assumption is that you will get an “A” group assignment more often than not. Whether you are flying on a Business Select fare or not.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines just unveiled its new changes in a webcast press conference.

The airline is changing its fare products. Business Select, Business, and Wanna Get Away. Within the Wanna Get Away fares are other fare breakdown classifications.

Business Select fares will be higher than the highest fares the airline has charged in the past. The amount will vary depending upon the flight.

The airline says for now about 10% of its seats will be available on that basis.

Business Select fliers will get more Rapid Reward credit, get “A” boarding, and a free drink.

Business class fares as essentially the same as the previous full fare refundable ticket.

Another change in the Rapid Rewards program — if you want a Rapid Rewards ticket that is good on any flight, for the exception of the usual holiday periods  (how it used to be), you have to turn in two regular Rapid Rewards tickets and pay $50.

Remember that the airline changed its Rapid Rewards program a couple of years ago to a “capacity controlled” system like other airlines.

So essentially, this is going back to what the program used to offer — at a higher cost.

The press conference is still ongoing at this point.

Southwest Airlines’ CEO Gary Kelly says that the airline expects the changes to bring the airline $100 million in additional yearly revenues.

Ticker: (LUV:NYSE)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

Mesa’s Jonathan Ornstein had best get his checkbook out.

Breaking news from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

“Mesa Air Group, parent of interisland carrier go!, must pay Hawaiian Airlines $80 million for using confidential information obtained during Hawaiian’s bankruptcy to enter the Hawaii market, a federal judge ruled today.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris, who had taken the matter under advisement on Oct. 4 following a nine-day evidentiary hearing and trial, said Mesa breached a confidentiality agreement by failing to return to Hawaiian or destroy evaluation material on a timely basis, then using that material to gain a competitive advantage when entering the Hawaii market.

Faris also ruled that Mesa must pay Hawaiian interest of 3.97 percent per annum as of the date of today’s ruling, but denied Hawaian’s request for a one-year injunction against go! for selling tickets because he said the award of the money damages adequately redressed the harm suffered by Hawaiian.”

More info here.

Our first take? About what we had expected. Judge Faris basically split the money request down the middle and let’s go! continue to fly. I never thought he would shut the airline down. The only question was how much in damages he would award to Hawaiian. (Please see this post for an updated take.)

$80 million is no small hit for Mesa. Should be interesting to hear the Mesa response to the ruling. Nothing yet. Guess we’ll hear from them tomorrow.

Ticker: (MESA:Nasdaq), (HA:AMEX)

Technorati Tags: Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Airlines