Interisland carrier go! narrowed its losses during the latest quarter, benefiting from lower fuel costs and improved load factors.

The company's Phoenix-based parent, Mesa Air Group, said yesterday that go! had an operating loss of $3.5 million during the three months ending June 30, which was down from an operating loss of $7.4 million in the year-earlier quarter.

The loss came on revenues of $8.7 million, which was down from $15.6 million in the year-earlier quarter.

"It's mostly lower fuel prices, but we're also running more efficiently," said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa's CEO.

The revenue comparison with the year-earlier quarter is skewed by the March 31, 2008, shutdown of Aloha. The shutdown contributed to a 150 percent increase in go!'s operating revenues during fiscal third quarter 2008.

Ornstein said the local carrier benefited from lower aviation fuel prices. Jet fuel prices dropped from a high of more than $4 a gallon in June 2008 to the $1.40 to $1.80 a gallon range in June 2009.

The airline also benefited from improvements in its scheduling.

During the first six months this year, go!'s jets flew nearly 66 percent full, which was about 2 percentage points better than the year-earlier period.

Meanwhile, parent company Mesa reported a slight decline in its fiscal third-quarter profit.

The company said it earned $1.7 million on revenues of $232.6 million during the three months ending June 30, 2009, which was off slightly from the year-earlier's net of $1.8 million and revenues of $353.9 million.