The September 11th attack
Mainland mail trickling in to Hawai'i
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
More first-class mail should be showing up in boxes across Hawai'i this week after the federal government yesterday eased restrictions on some mail being carried on passenger flights and Mainland post offices begin to ship the backlogged mail out.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Felice Broglio said the first planeload of first-class mail to arrive in Honolulu since Sept. 10 came in Saturday, a second plane on Sunday and a third yesterday, each of those carrying about 120,000 pounds of mail.
U.S. postal worker Sharon Fujinaga delivered mail in Kaimuki yesterday.
She said the normal volume of mail flown in each day is 180,000 to 220,000 pounds, so it will likely take days to ship all the mail to the Hawai'i that is en route but stalled on the Mainland because of restrictions on mail and cargo enforced since of the terrorist attacks.
Normally, interisland mail gets next-day delivery, she said, but that was taking two days until the Federal Aviation Administration relaxed a ban on passenger airplanes' carrying first-class mail.
However, the federal decision doesn't eliminate delays for larger envelopes and for packages, which still must travel on cargo flights, Broglio said.
She advised residents and visitors to mail as they normally would but expect some delays. Broglio said some mail was already headed for Hawai'i by surface mail and now first-class letter mail will need to be sorted out from the package and large letters being sent.
Mail continues to leave the state normally.
Broglio said the Postal Service had been looking for alternatives to get mail to other Pacific destinations such as Guam and American Samoa that don't have regularly scheduled cargo flights.
