Fuel shutdown inconveniences Big Island small-plane operators
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
KEAHOLE, Hawai'i — Air tour and general aviation operators are being forced to make costly runs to Hilo or Waimea to gas up while the sole provider of small-plane fuel at Kona International Airport is temporarily shut down.
Century Aviation has not been supplying fuel since Aug. 27, when it began required maintenance on its 6,000-gallon tank. Company officials are attending a convention in Florida and were unavailable for comment, but a woman who identified herself as the Kona station manager said yesterday fuel should be available by this weekend.
Several people involved in small-plane operations on the Big Island have criticized the state Department of Transportation for entering into an exclusive contact with Century Aviation, even though Federal Aviation Administration rules require that airport contracts leave room for competition.
A July 23, 2001, letter from the FAA to former airports chief Jerry Matsuda states the exclusive contract was improper and needed correcting.
Roy Sakata, acting chief of the state Airports Division, said yesterday the state has been discussing the issue with the FAA and will resolve the concerns with $11.2 million in improvements at the Kona airport, including a paved two-acre service ramp on the south end with additional sites for fuel vendors.
Sakata said Isemoto Contracting of Hilo is building the new fuel sites "as we speak."
Waimea fuel provider Randy Douglas of Douglas Aviation, who has been to Washington, D.C., to complain about the situation, called the arrangement between the state and Century Aviation an illegal monopoly. He said pilots would not be without fuel if his company and a half-dozen others with pending applications at the Kona airport had been given a chance to operate there.
Phil Auldridge, head of Hawai'i Flight Academy and Islander Hopper, said he is spending an average of $330 more per flight to get fuel in Waimea or Hilo, because of the cost of the extra fuel to fly there, the pilot's time and other expenses.
Speaking from Washington state where he was picking up a new training plane to ferry to Kona, Auldridge said he has complained for years about the need for additional fuel providers at Kona.
Keawehi Inaba, owner of Mokulele Flight Service, which operates four airplanes on around-the-island routes, said the problem has been "a major inconvenience to my staff and customers" because of the interruption in trips to stop for fuel in Hilo.
Meanwhile, fuel providers outside Kona are reaping a windfall from the situation. Dina Pasque of Murray Aviation in Hilo reports a 50 percent increase in sales, while Douglas said he is collecting an additional $1,000 a day.
The Century Aviation Kona station manager, who would not give her name, said there was a delay in getting additional fuel supplies because Douglas ordered fuel ahead of her company, and the Young Brothers barge could not accommodate both requests.
