Mesa Air Group Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ornstein said an $80 million judgment against his company "went too far" and that he expects the decision to be overturned on appeal.

Mesa's stock fell 45 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $4.65 yesterday after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris ordered the company to pay $80 million to Hawaiian Airlines for using confidential information to launch interisland carrier go! last year. It was the steepest decline for the stock in more than six months.

Shares of Hawaiian rose more than 20 percent yesterday to $5.30 before closing on the American Stock Exchange at $5.15.

The award is more than double Mesa's net profit for all of 2006.

Experts have said that Faris' ruling could result in the eventual demise of go! and could lead to higher interisland fares. At least one airline analyst questioned whether Hawaiian could have lost that much money as a result of the fare war.

"It just seems so big that it's beyond ... reasonable," said Robert McAdoo, senior research analyst with Avondale Partners LLC in Nashville.

"It's a little bit farfetched ... that Hawaiian could have lost that much money."

In a news release yesterday, Ornstein said he plans to appeal the decision and said he expects "an impartial appellate court" will set aside the award.

"The order is not a result of a jury finding but from a bankruptcy judge who entered sanctions against Mesa concerning evidentiary issues. We believe these sanctions went too far," Ornstein said.

"As we have pointed out from the inception of this case, Hawaiian's true motive in filing suit was to stifle competition and maintain the high fares and reduce capacity fostered by the interisland duopoly led by Hawaiian Airlines."

Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's chief executive officer, said the two-week court case clearly demonstrated that Mesa "took our playbook" to get an unfair advantage in the interisland market.

"This illustrates that Mesa's objective was not to come here to compete fairly and to try to attract customers in the the old-fashioned way. Instead, their objective was to drive local competition out of business," said Dunkerley.

"When you see $9 fares and $1 fares, everybody understands that this has nothing to do with fair competition but has everything to do with predatory pricing."

Mesa's pilots, who are in contract negotiations with the company, criticized Mesa's management yesterday for jeopardizing their livelihood and the company's future.

"The financial impact of the Hawaiian Airlines decision — if it is not overturned on appeal — will likely be felt for years to come," said pilot Michael Jayson, chairman of the 1,700-member Mesa unit of the Airline Pilots Association.

"Combine this with the skyrocketing attrition among our pilots and the on-going operational and staffing problems at Mesa Air Group, you can begin to appreciate why the pilots are so concerned about the future of our company."

Since the June 2006 launch of go!, interisland air fares have fallen from about from about $79 to $39 and $29. At times, Mesa has offered fares as low as $19, $9 and $1.

The cheaper fares have helped stimulate traffic to the Neighbor Islands but the local carriers say they don't make any money when one-way fares go below $50.

Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines, the state's No. 2 carrier, said go!'s low fares are designed to drive Aloha out of business so that go! could raise fares.

According to Hawaiian, the $80 million was for damages Hawaiian suffered through October 2007. It does not include future damages resulting from Mesa's conduct.

Hawaiian — whose lawsuit asks for an additional $93 million for future damages — said it plans to study Faris' opinion to see what steps it could take to recover those future damages.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.