Interisland flight subsidy sought

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Staff Writer

HILO — Gov. Linda Lingle intends to seek federal transportation money to subsidize the cost of interisland air travel, saying she doesn't see any other way in the near future to bring down prices.

Lingle first mentioned the idea to federal transportation officials at a National Governors Association meeting "and they were just kind of taken aback," the governor said at a luncheon sponsored by Hawai'i Island Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and other business groups yesterday.

"They had never thought about it in those terms. But anyone who stops for a moment and thinks about it, that is our transportation. That's how we move around the state. That's how we move people and goods. So we're going to pursue that."

Lingle said later that she did not know the size of the subsidy that state officials would seek.

State Department of Transportation officials said they are studying the proposal. Aloha Airlines officials said they had no comment. A spokesman for Hawaiian Airlines said a subsidy is a reasonable solution to consider.

"The airlines have been acting as a quasi-utility for years," said Keoni Wagner, spokesman for Hawaiian. "We've been losing lots of money for lots of years."

The federal government, Lingle said in her speech, "has invested billions of dollars in the interstate highway system, and we're saying, 'For us this is the interstate highway system, and why not look at this in a different way?'"

Advertiser staff writer Dan Nakaso contributed to this report.