Editorials
Tuesday, August 24, 1999

Aloha Airlines’ bid
for mainland flights

The issue: Aloha Airlines has announced daily flights to Oakland, Calif., from Honolulu and Maui.
Our view: The move is in part a response to inroads into Aloha's interisland business by direct flights from the mainland.

ALOHA Airlines' launching of flights to the Bay Area is in part an attempt to offset inroads into its interisland business by national airlines that fly direct to the neighbor islands.

Aloha is shrewdly avoiding tackling the industry giants head-on. By offering daily service from Honolulu and Maui to Oakland, rather than to San Francisco, the airline hopes to establish itself in a currently unfilled niche in the market.

Aloha President Glenn Zander pointed out that Aloha passengers will be able to avoid the heavy traffic of San Francisco by touching down across the bay. The service would be convenient for residents of Silicon Valley as well as Oakland.

The direct flights by the major airlines to the neighbor islands have cut into the market for transfer flights from Honolulu to the neighbor islands.

So Aloha is getting into the direct flight business itself. This seems wise because the direct flights are far more convenient for people who don't want to stop in Honolulu and are likely to become more popular.

Zander said the airline is looking for other niche markets on the mainland. It also operates charter flights to Johnston, Christmas and Midway islands and plans to begin service to the Marshall Islands next month.

Aloha's competitor in interisland service, Hawaiian Airlines, preceded Aloha in expanding service beyond Hawaii and is succeeding. For both airlines, expansion may be the key to survival.

For Hawaii residents, the local airlines' survival is important both for the jobs they create and the service they provide.

German move to Berlin

The issue: The German executive and legislative branches are completing a move from Bonn to Berlin.
Our view: The capital of German politics returns to its rightful home.

TEN years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a unified German government has returned to its traditional capital. Following the parliament's relocation from the West German capital of Bonn, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has moved into temporary headquarters that once accommodated former East German leader Erich Honecker while awaiting completion of a new office by the River Spree.

Approval of the German government's 375-mile move from the sleepy Rhine university town once known best as Beethoven's birthplace was not enthusiastic. Many bureaucrats who had established homes in Bonn were annoyed at having to move. Some opponents argued that its cost, eventually amounting to $10.8 billion, could better be spent on programs aimed at rebuilding the East.

Schroeder, who was among those who urged the move, marked the formal inauguration of his new office as the start of the "Berlin Republic" to complete the merger of East and West. "If ever Germany has undergone a peaceful and successful revolution, then this has been it," he said of the country's reunification a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Parliament next month will convene in the renovated 19-century Reichstag building but with little fanfare. Germans are more interested in the politics at hand, focused on dealing with a sputtering economy, than whether the debate occurs in Bonn or Berlin.

By returning to a revitalized Berlin, the German government demonstrates that it has put behind it the nightmares of the Nazi and Communist eras as it moves into the new millennium.

Hanauma Bay

The issue: The city has come up with a new plan to improve Hanauma Bay after its first proposal encountered strong opposition.
Our view: The new plan has a better chance of winning support.

Less than three months after an ambitious plan for Hanauma Bay and Koko Head was scrapped in the face of strong opposition, the city has come up with a more modest plan. This one focuses almost entirely on Hanauma Bay. There's nothing about a cable-car ride to the top of Koko Crater, the most controversial feature of the first plan.

The revised plan seems more likely to win public approval. It was based on suggestions made by the Hanauma Bay Improvements Task Force, which was formed by Mayor Harris after the original proposal was scrapped.

The $9.9 million plan calls for demolition of the existing snack bar and concession building on the beach and construction of a marine education center and snack bar in the upper area of the nature preserve. Other existing facilities would be replaced or improved.

On the Koko Crater side, the only change would be demolition of the buildings formerly used by the Job Corps.

The new plan seeks to preserve underwater resources through education of visitors. All visitors would have to complete a session of resource awareness training before being admitted to the bay. How practical this would be isn't clear.

There is no doubt that Hanauma Bay needs protection from overuse and that visitors should be educated about how to use the resource without damaging it. The marine sanctuary has made the bay phenomenally popular.

Creation of other sanctuaries could be part of the solution, by taking pressure off Hanauma Bay. That is not a new idea, but thus far such proposals have been rejected in the Legislature.

---

Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor