Island Air explains flight
delays to Gov. Lingle
Island Air executives assured Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday that the interisland carrier has solved its problems and has restored its full on-time service to Lanai and Molokai.
"We went through a really unusual period," said Neil Takekawa, Island Air's president and chief executive officer, after a meeting that the governor had requested to learn what was being done about episodes of passengers waiting hours because of delayed flights.
Takekawa said the airline plans to acquire extra aircraft by the end of this month, providing backup when its planes have to be taken out of service for mechanical problems.
"Although it's expensive, I think it's worthwhile to maintain our service," he said.
In the past few weeks, Island Air had delayed or canceled numerous flights, frustrating hundreds of passengers and leaving some camping out for hours at the Molokai and Lanai airports.
It generated complaints not only from local residents but from tourist industry officials concerned that visitors were being stranded or unable to make connecting flights.
Takekawa said it was unusual that so many mechanical and electrical problems appeared over a short period of time, leaving the airline without enough planes to handle seven daily flights to Lanai and 10 to Molokai.
Island Air serves Kapalua and Kaanapali on Maui, Molokai and Lanai from Honolulu and Kahului, flying 37-passenger turboprop de Havilland DASH-8s.
When one of its planes was taken out of service for six weeks for a major maintenance overhaul, it left four planes to operate 54 daily flights and a higher-than-normal number of mechanical problems occurred.
While the company plans to expand service to other parts of the islands, it won't do so until it has planes available that have already been broken in for Hawaii's higher humidity, which can cause electronic problems, Takekawa said.
"Then we'll probably expand to Hilo and then on to Lihue, which would be in August," Takekawa said. "But again, we're going to make sure our aircraft are here and operating well before we do any kind of expansion."
"We have a lesson well learned," he said.