Aloha Airlines Upping Low-Fare Ante

On the heels of its $60 one-day, one-way fare from Sacramento to Honolulu next week, Aloha Airlines on Thursday said it's going even lower: an $8.15 ticket for its inaugural flight on May 2 from Sacramento to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

The price reflects the 8:15 p.m. departure of one of the two weekday flights the carrier will begin operating between Sacramento and Orange County, said Thom Nulty, Aloha's senior vice president of sales and marketing. It also will run one flight a day on weekends.

"The reason we're doing this is to draw attention to ourselves," Nulty said. "We're not well known in the market and one way to get known is to do something extraordinary."

Though the $8.15 fare (not including an additional $10.30 in airport and security taxes and fees) is available only on Tuesday's flight, the airline will offer promotional $60 one-way fares between Sacramento and Orange County, if purchased by the end of May and if travel is completed by June 14.

That compares to the $81 one-way tickets currently available from Southwest Airlines, the only other carrier to fly that route.

Aloha's other local promotion, a $60 one-way flight from Sacramento to Honolulu on May 2, hasn't yet sold out, Nulty said, but he's confident all 112 seats will be filled before takeoff.

"It's a real impulse buy," he said. "It takes somebody (unusual) to decide on Thursday that they are leaving the following Tuesday for Hawaii."

The $8.15 and $60 fares are available only at www.alohaairlines.com. Phone reservations at (800) 367-5250 incur an additional charge of $10.

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