Foreign airlines
get greater access

Any foreign carrier serving
the U.S. now can fly to
Honolulu and Kona

By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

Foreign airlines will be allowed greater rights to serve Honolulu and Kona, under an order announced by the U.S. Transportation Department.

"Any time a barrier is removed, it brings us that much closer to bringing a flight here," said Diane Quitiquit, head of Hawaii County Department of Research and Development.

But the order, announced yesterday, denies the biggest liberalization some business interests had wanted -- the right of foreign airlines to pick up and carry passengers between U.S. airports.

Said Honolulu travel agency executive Victoria Foster: "It's too wishy-washy. Maybe down the road it's a steppingstone to something bigger and better. I think it's just a piece of the puzzle."

The right of foreign airlines to carry passengers between American airports -- Honolulu to Los Angeles, for example -- is called cabotage.

Since the order forbids cabotage, it's not clear what it does permit. "There needs to be clarification," said Lt. Gov. Maizie Hirono.

A Transportation Department news release said the order allows "virtually all foreign carriers that have the right to serve the United States to also serve Honolulu and Kona, Hawaii." The liberalization includes air cargo service.

The right of foreign airlines to fly to the United States is based on country-by-country "bilateral agreements."

The new order appears to allow at least partially bypassing such agreements, saying new agreements can be made on an "extra-bilateral basis."

An example might be a foreign airline now flying to Los Angeles, which could apply for a new route to Honolulu or Kona.

But Foster cast doubt on how useful that might be.

Singapore Airlines used to fly to Hawaii, she said, but dropped that route in favor of Los Angeles.

For a while, Singapore Airlines flew to Los Angeles with a stopover in Honolulu, Foster said. But they could only take on passengers which they had dropped off on previous flights, and there weren't many of those.

Since cabotage prevented them from flying new passengers, they were flying nearly empty planes, she said.

Still, officials were optimistic. Hirono said, "The bottom line is, within certain limits, they get to do more."