Airline fighting changes at Kahului Airport

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

New screening procedures at Kahului Airport on Monday morning will leave Pacific Wings' passengers waiting outside using porta-potties while Island Air passengers are in the terminal.

"Which airline are you going to fly?" said an angry Greg Kahlstorf, president of Maui-based Pacific Wings. "The one where you can be inside and use a real bathroom, or the one that doesn't even have a place to sit, and you have to go squat on a port-a-potty?"

Kahlstorf, who is in Oklahoma buying new airplanes, said he learned about the changes yesterday.

"You know how (former Hawai'i airlines) Mahalo and Discovery got run out of business? You (airport officials) make it impossible for my passengers to even enjoy the basic accouterments of an airport, and that's what's going to happen to me."

Jon Sakamoto, Maui airports manager, said last night, "Yeah, there will be changes Monday morning. ... I don't want to get into this. We have to have a meeting to discuss alternatives. We don't know what the impact's going to be."

Sakamoto said a meeting would be held Monday with the Transportation Security Administration, airport officials, Pacific Wings and Island Air.

But the changes will already have gone into effect, he said.

Island Air officials were not immediately available for comment. Local TSA officials also could not be reached.

Kahlstorf has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice to review code-sharing agreements between Hawaiian Airlines, Aloha Airlines and former Aloha subsidiary Island Air.

He has called the agreements anti-competitive, giving his three rivals "market domination and control that would otherwise be prohibited."

Code-sharing is a commercial agreement that allows two airlines to sell tickets on the other's flights. Each airline can put its two-letter code on the other's flights in computerized reservation systems, expanding the network of flights offered by each.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.