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  • PacificWings

    Was watching the late KHNL newscast on Tuesday night and there was a commerical about a company called PacificWings that is flying between the islands. How long have they been around?

  • #2
    Re: PacificWings

    Originally posted by helen
    Was watching the late KHNL newscast on Tuesday night and there was a commerical about a company called PacificWings that is flying between the islands. How long have they been around?
    Pacific Wings is a small commuter airline based out of Maui that has been flying in Hawaii for about 10 years now. They have scheduled service between most of the major island airports as well as to some of the rural airports like Hana, Kamuela and Kalaupapa. They also fly charters.

    The airline has or will be expanding to American and possibly Western Samoa to offer those islands with interisland service.

    I checked into their fares once on a trip from HNL to Kamuela... it was $70 each way. A discount flight on Aloha Airlines from HNL to Hilo is $74. A discount flight from HNL to Hilo on Hawaiian is $94. The regular non-discount fairs are at around $115. The State and Feds have about a $23 security fee and tax attached to many flights. I think all of these prices is based on the assumption that you are booking online only. It probably costs more now to book a flight through the phone or in person at a ticket office. Paper tickets if offered, generally cost about $25 extra! Ouch!

    Flying interisland is not as cheap as it once was.

    BTW, Pacific Wings flys Cessna 208B "caravan" single engine turbo prop planes that carry about 10 passengers... maybe more. I'll post a link to a picture of their aircraft on the next post. (The last time I did it on this post, the long URL to the picture may have crashed this board).
    I'm still here. Are you?

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    • #3
      Re: PacificWings

      Here is a picture of Pacific Wings Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft. Photo linked to the website Airliners.Net.
      I'm still here. Are you?

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      • #4
        Re: PacificWings

        I've noticed their ads lately, too. Simple but effective, I suppose. With things the way they are, the seem more a reasonable alternative to the Big Two than they (Pacific Wings and the recently liberated Island Air) used to be. But you're right, Mel, the prices aren't that much better if you plan ahead.

        I just can't bring myself to fly those small planes, though. There's something disconcerting about getting on board, and having the pilot ask you how much you weigh, and then asking you to move to the other side of the plane. And, well, we sure lose a lot more small planes more often than we do big ones.

        Has anyone flown PacificWings? Have prop planes gotten better since, say, 1988, when I took an Island Air flight to Molokai and was convinced I was going to die?

        Right now, for some, the setup and the price make these small carriers viable. Thinking now, though, I think the long anticipated arrival of the SuperFerry will be a bigger thread to prop plane commuter airlines than it will Aloha and Hawaiian.

        P.S. Mel, if you're ever worried about long URLs choking websites or e-mails, I've long taken advantages of the free services of TinyURL.com.

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        • #5
          Re: PacificWings

          Originally posted by pzarquon
          I just can't bring myself to fly those small planes, though. There's something disconcerting about getting on board, and having the pilot ask you how much you weigh, and then asking you to move to the other side of the plane. And, well, we sure lose a lot more small planes more often than we do big ones.

          Has anyone flown PacificWings? Have prop planes gotten better since, say, 1988, when I took an Island Air flight to Molokai and was convinced I was going to die?
          In the olden days both Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha used to fly nothing but prop planes. But their prop planes were bigger airliners like the DC-6, Viscont, YS-11 and Convair 640. The ride was comfortable and fairly long. We're talking 1960s and 1970s here.

          I've flown in a those and a handful of smaller prop planes at various times in my life. All successful flights since I am still here posting to this board.

          Small planes that I have ridden include Gulf Jetstream twin turboprop, Dehavilland Dash 6 "Twin Otter" (Golden West Airlines), Dash 7 (Hawaiian Airlines), Shorts 330 (Hawaiian Airlines) and YS-11 (okay this is a bigger plane, once flown by Mid Pacific Air).... I guess the Twin Otter was the smallest plane I been in. It was like riding a clackity old bus, the kind the city used to have in the 1970s... the flight was a short hop from some small airport in an LAX suburb to LAX proper.

          More than likely your trip on Air Molokai was on a Cessna 402, a twin engine prop plane that carries about 6 to 8 passengers.

          I think in most cases flying on a regularly scheduled airline, even on a prop plane is safe. Most of the small prop planes that have crashed were operated by private individuals or flight schools here in Hawaii. The last prop plane crash by an established carrier was Hawaii Air Ambulance on the Big Island.

          The last sheduled airline crash involving a local prop plane was in 1989 when an Aloha Island Air Twin-Otter crashed on Molokai in bad weather killing several students on the Molokai volleyball team.

          Since then no local airline has had a crash including those flying prop planes. Island Air is pretty much safe flying the somewhat bigger Dash 8 planes, which for people on Molokai and Lanai will be their only form of scheduled airline service starting in August after Hawaiian pulls out of the market.

          Pacific Wings does not offer scheduled service to Molokai or Lanai due to political and financial reasons.
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          • #6
            Re: PacificWings

            Originally posted by mel
            [The airline has or will be expanding to American and possibly Western Samoa to offer those islands with interisland service.
            Update:

            Pacific Wings has scrapped its plan to offer service in American Samoa.
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            • #7
              Re: PacificWings

              It was nearly 30 years ago, but I spent 7 or 8 months traveling to work in a DeHaviland Caribou, a 30-passenger twin prop built for short runways. This was while I was on Kwajalein flying to Meck, a half-hour hop up the atoll.

              I never worried about crashing, although if you had a window seat you could see the edge of the reef about 10 feet below you as you came in to land on that Meck runway.
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