Posted on: Friday, August 10, 2001

Hawai'i-bound visitors endure 27-hour delay

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

The more than 200 passengers who endured a 27-hour delay flying from New York to Honolulu this week got conciliatory telephone calls yesterday from the tour company that arranged their Hawai'i vacations.

"We're going to do everything we possibly can to make sure what the people purchased is what they will get," said Ken Phillips, director of corporate communications for Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, of Westlake Village, Calif. "It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances that we're doing everything we can to make right."

American Trans Air Flight 837 was scheduled to depart Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT from New York's Kennedy Airport and arrive in Honolulu at 2:15 p.m. Hawai'i time, according to Angela Thomas, the airline's director of public relations. Instead, she said, passengers arrived at 5:36 p.m. Hawai'i time Wednesday.

Two separate mechanical problems caused the flight delay, Thomas said. One problem delayed the plane's departure by six hours and a second problem caused the plane to return to the gate after passengers had boarded. By that time — about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday — passengers were "getting hostile," Thomas said.

American Trans Air gave the travelers meal vouchers and hotel accommodations Tuesday night. But tempers rose again Wednesday after passengers arrived for an 8 a.m. departure and did not leave until 1 p.m. because of a delayed inbound flight, she said.

ATA gave passengers a free round-trip ticket good for travel anywhere in the continental United States, Thomas said. They also received $100 gift certificates to use toward another ATA flight.

Phillips, who has been with Pleasant Hawaiian nearly 16 years, said this week's flight delay is the longest in his memory.

"We just don't expect these kind of things to happen, but the first thing we must keep in mind is the passengers' safety," he said.

Reach Susan Hooper at shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8064.