State wins injunction against Mainline

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Luke R. Thompson, the 18-year-old CEO of a company that promised discounted airfares from Honolulu to Los Angeles, surprised state officials yesterday by calling in to Circuit Court proceedings in which the state won a preliminary injunction against the company.

Thompson told Judge Eden Elizabeth Hifo that he had no reason to contest the injunction because Mainline Airways LLC has no intentions of operating.

"There is no way we can operate profitably," Thompson told the judge.

The company was little more than a Web site that had promised to start flights in July, state and federal officials have said.

Yesterday's hearing essentially ended the state Office of Consumer Protection's efforts to stop Mainline from advertising one-way fares for as low as $89 at a time when established airlines are charging as much as $1,000 for similar round-trip tickets.

The Massachusetts attorney general has obtained a temporary restraining order against Thompson and Mainline Airways, alleging that they sold tickets for nonexistent flights.

Thompson established Mainline Airways' now-defunct Web site earlier this year while a freshman at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Babson calls itself a top school for budding entrepreneurs. Thompson's family lives in Yardley, Pa.

Michael Moriyama, an attorney for the Office of Consumer Protection, was surprised by Thompson's phone call yesterday and did not know where it originated.

Moriyama said after the hearing that would-be customers from Hawai'i, California, Utah and Massachusetts, among other states, gave money to Mainline.

Although Thompson has told officials that there were 121 customers in all, Moriyama said that state officials have not seen Mainline's records to confirm the number. Thompson said in court papers that all Hawai'i customers had received refunds. But Moriyama said that has not been confirmed.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.