Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

[joshuatree]

Re: Pacific Wings

While the big boys duke it out for the main interisland traffic, little Pacific Wings has quietly been going about its business of providing air service to the tiny towns of Hana, Kalaupapa and Kamuela.

To guarantee air service for those tiny communities, the federal government provides subsidies to the airlines that fly into the towns, and Pacific Wings has had the contract to be the sole carrier.

Now, Pacific Wings has decided to give up the subsidy but will still fly into the 3 communities on a commercial basis. Since they will no longer be the sole dedicated carrier, could this open up the market to Mokulele, flying as go!Express? Would there be enough demand to have more than one company flying into Hana, for instance? If not, it means that for the convenience of having regularly scheduled flights, people in those communities will have to pay much higher fares because there is no government subsidy any longer (as of next month).

Miulang

P.S. the story says the owners of Pacific Wings originally wanted to get into code sharing agreements with other carriers, but then decided against it. I wonder if they were talking to go! prior to go!s arrangements with Mokulele?

Just a quick question, do you know what routes Mokulele is flying? And curious, why did Pacific Wings forgo gov't subsidy? Were there stipulations that hindered it's business plan?

[Miulang]

Re: Pacific Wings

Just a quick question, do you know what routes Mokulele is flying? And curious, why did Pacific Wings forgo gov't subsidy? Were there stipulations that hindered it's business plan?

If you go to the Mokulele Airlines website, you will see that they also fly into Hana and Kalaupapa but not Kamuela. As to why Pacific Wings gave up the subsidy, the owner of Pacific Wings said:

Kahlstorf says essential air service subsidies were never intended by the government to be permanent, although there is "no incentive to get off."

Pacific Wings created its own incentive, as Ford and Kahlstorf decided they had to figure out how to grow their business instead of stagnating under a subsidy.

Another incentive was to avoid the hassle of biennial renewals of the subsidy.

The Bush administration, generally hostile to subsidies, kept trying to reduce or eliminate the appropriation from the budget. A coalition of senators and representatives with rural airports in their districts saved the subsidy again and again.

At the other end, Kahlstorf said, the renewal process was "used like a hammer in some communities to drive pet projects."

He was referring to his feud with Hotel Hana-Maui, which he said disliked the schedules Pacific Wings flew. At the last renewal competition, a new entrant, Vision Air, enjoyed a boomlet in Hana, but when it failed to get the subsidy, it discontinued flying.

Now, paying his own way, Kahlstorf says he will have the flexibility to adjust schedules and routes to suit the business.

Miulang

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

Wow, that's great for Pacific Wings. It's nice to see a company that wants to succeed on its own merits instead of subsidies. As for any negotiations with go!, it's possible but guess we'll never know for sure unless they come out telling us.

[mel]

Re: Pacific Wings

While the big boys duke it out for the main interisland traffic, little Pacific Wings has quietly been going about its business of providing air service to the tiny towns of Hana, Kalaupapa and Kamuela.

Hana and Kalaupapa are tiny towns. Kamuela is a growing and bustling bedroom community. They have daily traffic jams, two shopping centers, several strip malls, traffic lights, a radio station, two private high schools, one public middle and elementary school and one of the world's largest ranches nearby.

I think the local airlines should re-examine Kamuela as a destination. The population has grown enough to warrant an increase in flights to Waimea-Kohala (MUE) with the possible use of a larger plane. Used to be many years ago, Hawaiian Airlines served MUE with prop planes and later DC9 jets.

What killed it for MUE was the opening of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway to Kona and the then new Kona Airport built along the way. Regardless people from the middle of the island have to travel several miles to Hilo or Kona to get to a flight. It would be nice to cut driving time down with a more centrally located airport such as Waimea-Kohala (MUE).

Now, Pacific Wings has decided to give up the subsidy but will still fly into the 3 communities on a commercial basis. Since they will no longer be the sole dedicated carrier, could this open up the market to Mokulele, flying as go!Express?

I would like to see MUE opened up to more competition. If another carrier think it can make some money on the route, why not? It's a risky move on Pacific Wings' part but I applaud them.

P.S. the story says the owners of Pacific Wings originally wanted to get into code sharing agreements with other carriers, but then decided against it. I wonder if they were talking to go! prior to go!s arrangements with Mokulele?

Pacific Wings Greg Kahlstorf would probably never enter a code sharing agreement with Go! He was a vocal opponent to having Go! get counter space in Honolulu's commuter air terminal where only Pacific Wings and Island Air once were. Now Go! has a counter right next to Pacific Wings I believe.

[aloha-anon]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

This is greg kahlstrofs way of screwing over go! The Mesa Lies Blog explains.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

WTG again, HA and AQ!. The top 2 on-time carriers in the country in Oct.! HA was #1 for fewest number of passenger complaints and AQ was #5. And where is Mesa in the standings?

Miulang

[aloha-anon]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

WTG again, HA and AQ!. The top 2 on-time carriers in the country in Oct.! HA was #1 for fewest number of passenger complaints and AQ was #5. And where is Mesa in the standings?

Miulang

Cut Mesa some slack! It's hard to perform when you are being sued by two other airlines, your own pilots, and the DOT!

/sarcasm

[dick]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

I just flew go! this pat weekend to Maui. They had the lowest fares ($39 each way) for a last minute visit to go see the relatives on Maui.

I must say, coming out of Honolulu, at the commuter terminal, it was a nice experience. Didn't have to deal with so many people at the ticket counter, and the security line was a breeze.

Returning from Maui was pretty good as well, the ticket counter was relatively empty, but since all flights have to go through the general security, that was a drag.

The flights themselves were pleasant enough. Gotta pay for drinks, but I don't drink anything anyway, so I don't care. Small planes make for fast on and off.

Overall, given the no-hassle ticket lines, it was a nice experience. And both flights were on time.

[mel]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

Something I forgot to post in my blog entry on flying Go! last month... the B.E.T. music soundtrack that played before the plane left and after it landed. They had these guys B.E.T. singing some Jawaiian music and they did part of the pre-recorded safety briefing; I think the part about turning all your electronics and cell phones off before take off. And when the plane landed they come on the intercom and said something like "Yo! Thanks for flying Go!"

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

That's... curious. Didn't they have an all-pidgin recording set before, or did I imagine that? I wonder if they're going to work their way through other dialects, accents, cultures (and/or stereotypes). Next month, Mike Meyers doing the bit from SNL's "Coffee Talk"!

[aloha-anon]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

Heres an old PBN article.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/s...3/daily19.html

Pacific Wings maneuvering this week pretty much kills this deal for Mesa and Mokulele. Mesa is renown as the biggest EAS whore. Pacific Wings had to do something.

This is really a big story and its amazing the local media is just clueless.

[dick]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

There was some ridiculous pre-flight affair from B.E.T. Including hackneyed pidgin and a lame "we're B.E.T., Big Every Time, one of Hawaii's top recording acts." I almost fell out of my chair. Plus, the audio is incredibly bad. It reminded me of one of those cans-on-a-string affairs. They definitely gotta lose that nonsense...

And, since we're nitpicking, the in-flight magazine was gawd-awful. Not that I expected much from a bargain affair, but still...

[Miulang]

One suit down, two to go

Judge Robert Faris threw out the lawsuit brought by Mesa against HA for trying to illegally block its entry into the interisland air service.

In a hearing yesterday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris rejected Mesa's suit against Hawaiian, which alleged that Hawaiian was attempting to illegally block competition.

Faris also set Sept. 25, 2007, as the trial date for a suit Hawaiian's filed against Mesa. Hawaiian's suit charges that Mesa improperly used confidential information during Hawaiian's bankruptcy proceedings to prepare for the launch go!, which competes with Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines on interisland routes.

A suit filed by AQ against Mesa in Oct. is still awaiting a hearing date.

Miulang

[aloha-anon]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

I wonder if it was thrown out with prejudice?

[mel]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 2

KITV 4 reports on their news tonight that Go! is starting another $29 interisland ticket sale starting at midnight tonight and good for one week. The flying period is to Jan 31 with restrictions according to the report.