Aloha Airlines’ name has been sold, but go! Mokulele won’t be able to use it.

Los Angeles-based Yucaipa Cos., the former majority shareholder of Aloha, won federal Bankruptcy Court approval last week to buy the Aloha name and other intellectual property for $1.5 million with a stipulation that it not resell the name to Mesa Air Group, the parent of go! Mokulele.

In 2009, Mesa sought to re-brand its go! planes as Aloha. But federal Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King stopped the name change, following impassioned pleas from former Aloha Airlines employees who largely blamed Mesa for Aloha’s demise.

Aloha ceased operations in April 2008, leaving more than 2,000 workers without jobs.

The purchase of the intellectual property was mostly a noncash transaction. In exchange for the intellectual property, Yucaipa will reduce the amount the Aloha estate owes Yucaipa by $1,428,571. Yucaipa also will pay the estate $71,429 in cash — 5 percent of the purchase price — that will be used to pay attorney and other professional fees.

In a May 2009 ruling, King wrote that "Mesa succeeded in inflicting great harm, not only upon the Aloha corporate entities, but also upon thousands of Aloha employees and their families. Now, through Yucaipa, Mesa seeks to perfect its wrongdoing by becoming Aloha. It is difficult to imagine a court overlooking what Mesa has done and putting its stamp of approval on Mesa’s subsidiary, go!, becoming Aloha."

In last week’s ruling, King wrote that "the trustee has demonstrated a sound business purpose and justification for the sale" and that the buyer is "a good faith purchaser."

Yucaipa spokesman Frank Quintero declined to say what the company intends to do with the name.

Mesa Chairman and Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein said recently he was no longer interested in trying to obtain the Aloha name.

But a former Aloha pilot, who asked to remain anonymous, said yesterday he was still wary of Mesa.

"If somehow Mesa and Ornstein want to use the name Aloha Airlines on those go! flights, they’re going to find some legal maneuver around it," the ex-Aloha pilot said.

Aloha bankruptcy estate trustee Dane Field said he has "no idea" what Yucaipa intends to do with the name.

"It’s not a concern of mine," Field said. "When I sell assets, I usually don’t tell people what to do with the assets. If I sell a house, I don’t tell somebody what to do with the house. My job is to get the most value for the estate for the assets I’m administering."

The sale of the Aloha name created an uproar among employees in May 2009 after Yucaipa reached a settlement in a lawsuit with Mesa that allowed Aloha’s one-time rival to license the Aloha name for 10 years for a minimum of $6 million.