18-year-old the brains behind low-fare 'airline'

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

The investigation began innocuously, with an unsolicited spam message on Stephen Levins' cell phone advertising cut-rate flights from Honolulu to Los Angeles.

THOMPSON

"That really piqued our interest," Levins said.

Less than two months later, the investigation into Mainline Airways LLC and its CEO, Luke R. Thompson, has stretched from Honolulu to Los Angeles to as far away as Massachusetts and includes federal authorities poring through what Mainline Airways promised its customers.

Perhaps hundreds of people booked flights beginning July 3. So far, investigators haven't been able to find any evidence of anything remotely resembling an airline. No planes. No crew. No terminals. No permits to fly.

But they did make one interesting discovery.

The brains behind Mainline Airways turned out to be an 18-year-old college freshman operating his business via a Web site he ran out of his Massachusetts business college.

"We've had situations where kids will have problems, like an eBay transaction," Levins said. "We've never had an experience with an 18-year-old purporting to run an airline."

The Massachusetts attorney general last week obtained a temporary restraining order against Thompson and Mainline Airways that prohibits them from using the company's accounts for any reason other than to give refunds.

The office also sued Thompson and Mainline Airways, alleging they sold tickets for nonexistent flights.

Tomorrow, Hawai'i's Office of Consumer Protection will seek a permanent injunction in Circuit Court to prohibit Mainline from selling tickets or collecting money before it complies with federal and state laws.

Before he went off to Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., which calls itself one of the country's top-ranked schools for the study of entrepreneurship, Thompson lived in a three-story house in an affluent Pennsylvania neighborhood in Bucks County.

Yardley, Pa., used to be mostly farm land. Today, it still only has about 25,000 people. And it's a peaceful life.

Residents say the area is dotted with horses grazing in fields. In Thompson's neighborhood of Stony Hill Road, no commercial operations are allowed, said neighbor Todd Devin, who lives down the street from Thompson's family.

"No gas stations, bars, liquor stores, nothing like that," Devin said.

"It's a quiet, residential community. It's a good place to raise kids."

Before it was renamed Pennsbury High School East, Thompson was among the 2002 last graduating class from Pennsbury High School, home of the Falcons.

Pennsbury High School's yearbook doesn't include room for seniors to list their accomplishments. But Thompson was one of a handful of students to win "some sort of academic award," according to the school district's spokesman, Elliott Alexander.

While life in Yardley can be quiet, the people are tied to busy lives. The town rests along the banks of the Delaware River, across from Trenton, New Jersey. It's 70 miles from New York, where many of Yardley's adults commute into the city every day by train.

During his freshman year at Babson, according to the Massachusetts attorney general's complaint, Thompson incorporated Mainline Airways in his home state of Pennsylvania and established a Web site that featured Hawaiian music and images.

"While the company is incorporated in Yardley, Pennsylvania, its corporate headquarters has been listed as Wellesley, Massachusetts," according to the documents.

The company address was Thompson's Babson College post office box.

According to the Massachusetts documents, Mainline advertised a "fleet" of Boeing jets that came with leather chairs and personal televisions for every seat.

And while major airlines were increasing fares from Honolulu to Los Angeles to as much as $1,000, Mainline continued to advertise $89 tickets beginning July 3.

But Thompson shut down Mainline's operations on June 10 and canceled its plans after the state Office of Consumer Protection obtained a temporary restraining order.

Thompson did not return The Advertiser's phone calls seeking comment last week. But he told The Associated Press that his company was a legitimate business.

"We had every intention of doing this operation," he said.

"We had 15 airlines we had contacted or were in serious negotiations with, regarding the actual providing of the (air) service." He did not provide details of the airlines involved.

Thompson has said that 120 people made "pre-reservations" with Mainline.

The state Office of Consumer Protection believes that the number could be much higher. Investigators ultimately may find that hundreds of people thought Thompson was selling the real thing.

"Just because someone's young," Levins said, "doesn't necessarily mean they're not capable."

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