Hawaiian Airlines cuts Moloka'i, Lana'i flights

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaiian Airlines will no longer fly to Moloka'i and Lana'i starting in August, but will partner with Island Air to sell flights to those islands.

The change allows Hawaiian to add a daily round trip flight between Honolulu and Maui in the morning and Honolulu and Hilo in the afternoon, starting Aug. 1. The new flights will add 1,722 seats to each route per week.

"Hilo and Maui residents have been calling for more service during these hours and we're going to provide it," said Joshua Gotbaum, trustee of Hawaiian Airlines, which is restructuring under bankruptcy protection.

Hawaiian Airlines is starting a code-share partnership with Island Air to offer the Lana'i and Moloka'i flights as well as routes to Kapalua in West Maui, all on Island Air's 37-seat de Havilland Dash-8 aircraft.

Island Air offers seven daily flights to Lana'i, eight daily flights to Moloka'i and seven daily flights to West Maui.

The code-share partnership allows customers to book flights through Hawaiian on those selected flights operated by Island Air and earn Hawaiian frequent flier miles.

Hawaiian Airlines wants to discontinue the Lana'i and Moloka'i flights it operates because its 123-seat aircraft on those once-a-day routes are usually less than 20 percent full, sometimes with fewer than 10 passengers. Hawaiian has flown to Lana'i and Moloka'i since the mid-1930s.

"The best way to serve people is to use that fleet where people need it the most, and people have for more than a year been calling for additional service at Hilo and additional service at Maui. And the only way to do that is to use our aircraft from other routes," Gotbaum said. "Now Lana'i and Moloka'i, because they are small airports, we were never flying full."

Gotbaum said the Island Air flights have enough capacity to accommodate Hawaiian customers.

"By using the right aircraft for the right airports it enables us to serve more travelers," Gotbaum said. "They're getting large-airline service to small airports."

Travelers can use Hawaiian's Web check-in for multiple-leg flights that include an Island Air flight if the original departure is on a Hawaiian-operated flight.

Hawaiian said the changes will result in the loss of 14 jobs, but those employees can interview with Island Air or be offered another position with Hawaiian, among other options.

Island Air, which was owned by Aloha Airlines until this year, also has a code-share partnership with Aloha. That partnership allows customers booking through Aloha or Island Air to earn Aloha miles.

The partnership with Hawaiian benefits Island Air because "Hawaiian markets all over the place and with code-sharing, whenever they sell something we get to tag along with that," said Island Air president Neil Takekawa.

Island Air offers about 50 daily interisland flights. It plans to increase service to Hilo and Lihu'e later this year.

Separately, Hawaiian Airlines is increasing interisland flight capacity by 17 percent for the summer, on par with last summer.

Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2470.