The parent of go! airline said today that its net income fell 68 percent during its most recent quarter because of higher costs in its Mainland operations.

Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. said its net income for the three months ending Sept. 30 was $4.8 million, or 12 cents per share, compared to $15 million, or 36 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The results were well below Wall Street's expectations. Analyst polled by Zack's Investment Research Inc. had forecasted earnings of 24 cents per share for the quarter.

Shares of Mesa dropped 28 cents to close yesterday at $8.52 on the Nasdaq market.

"While we are not pleased with this quarter's results, which were primarily impacted by higher than anticipated engine and crew training expenses, we believe the quarter has laid the foundation both to pursue opportunities and continue to operate effectively and efficiently," said Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein in a written statement.

The carrier reported revenue of $362.5 million, which was up 17.3 percent from $309.1 million in the same period last year.

Mesa did not provide financial statistics on go!, the new interisland carrier that Mesa launched in June with $39 one-way tickets between islands. In a conference call with investors yesterday, Ornstein said the interisland carrier's revenues were below expectations because of lower than anticipated load factors.

go! reported that its planes were 82.5 percent filled in its inaugral month. But since then, the airline's monthly load factor has dipped into the 60 percent range.

Ornstein said go!'s load factor would have been in the 70 percent range if local competitors Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines hadn't added capacity to compete with go!

Both Aloha and Hawaiian have sued Mesa, alleging that the carrier is unfairly attempting to drive them out of business.

"When we entered the market, all of the carriers ... (said) that there was not enough room and there was too much capacity," Ornstein said.

"What did they do? They added more capacity than we did. If anyone is acting in a predatory or anti-competitive way, it would be them."

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.