Airline cuts While major national and international airlines are cutting staff and services to deal with a fall in travel made worse by the war in Iraq, two of the biggest say they have no plans to cut Hawaii flights because of the war.
so far spare
Hawaii
Carriers are cutting back
flight schedules, but
not their routes to the islesBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comHawaii is not included in pending service cuts at United Airlines, said Joe Hopkins, a spokesman at United's headquarters in Chicago. The airline told its employees yesterday to expect layoffs because of reduced schedules.
"We are going to bring down our schedule somewhat, but Hawaii is not affected," Hopkins said. United has 19 flights a day to Hawaii.
Continental Airlines also plans no war-related changes in its Hawaii service, said Georgette Deemer, a Honolulu spokeswoman for Continental.
The airline, which has five flights a day to Hawaii, announced Wednesday that it will cut its company-wide staff by 1,200 this year as one of several moves to reduce expenses by $500 million next year and said additional cuts might be needed if the Iraq war is a lengthy one.
No service cuts were announced by either of the two Japanese airlines serving Hawaii, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
The two Honolulu-based airlines, Hawaiian and Aloha did not announce any flight changes.
Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner said the airline had not seen any unusual change in activity, either in the airports or with reservations, and no significant number of cancellations.
The airlnes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.
Bookings have been slowing over the past months already, he said.
Hawaiian announced Wednesday that it will waive reservation change fees to give more flexibility to travelers.
"There were quite a few calls from people interested in the waiver," Wagner said.
The waiver applies to reservations purchased within 90 days of the start of the military action, and travel can be rescheduled for any date through Dec. 31, the airline said. The waiver is good for one reservation change only, with additional changes requiring applicable fees, Hawaiian said.
Aloha Airlines announced earlier this month that it would waive change fees for customers holding reservations for travel within 90 days of the start of war.
At the time, Glenn Zander, Aloha's president and chief executive officer, said the airline didn't want to discourage people from planning trips because they might be afraid they would have to pay more if war broke out.
A spokesman for Aloha said yesterday he had no comment because the appropriate executives were in meetings all day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.