Hawaiian’s aloha flight
has Molokai in bind

Commuter airlines cannot accommodate
some passengers with medical conditions

Olakalani Mollena said she doesn't know how she'll get her infant son to Honolulu for respiratory treatment now that Hawaiian Airlines has stopped flying to Molokai and there are no other regularly scheduled airlines certified to carry oxygen tanks.

Hawaiian made its last flight to Molokai yesterday.

"On the 25th we're supposed to take him to Honolulu," said Mollena, 21, a native Hawaiian who lives on homestead land in western Molokai. "That means he may have to go 45 minutes without oxygen."

Hawaiian Airlines said the decision to eliminate the only daily flights to Molokai and Lanai from Oahu was in response to low passenger seating aboard its 123-seat Boeing jets and greater demand for Honolulu-Hilo and Honolulu-Maui flights.

A number of Molokai residents say Hawaiian Airlines' decision to withdraw from the Molokai market not only limits the ability for holding large events on the island, but also puts some residents at risk in traveling without special air services.

Commuter airlines, such as Island Air with 37-passenger de Havilland Dash-8 aircraft, are expected to pick up Hawaiian's passenger and freight business on Molokai.

Sonia Maliu, 38, who weighs 500 pounds and suffers from congestive heart failure and sleep apnea, said she doesn't know how she'll be able to board the smaller airplanes for her next medical flight to Honolulu in September.

On Hawaiian, she was able to board with a high lift. Maliu said she also uses a small oxygen tank to help in her breathing and can't take it with her on flights.

Maliu said in the past, she has hooked up her breathing apparatus to the oxygen system on Hawaiian Airlines.

Residents said without Hawaiian Airlines' large capacity of seats, there will be more difficulty for people attending off-island canoe races and high school sports events and shipping Molokai farm produce to Honolulu.

"Hawaiian Airlines leaving Molokai has major implications, all negative, for our island," said Maui Councilman Danny Mateo.

"There were considerations that I really think weren't really addressed."

Visitor industry observers say that to a large degree the flight reduction reflects a continuing sag in the tourist market on the Friendly Isle.

Mateo acknowledges that even if more tourists were to visit Molokai, they would have problems finding enough hotel accommodations. The number of hotel rooms on Molokai has decreased in the last five years, with the closure of the 100-plus-room Kaluakoi Hotel and the sale of the 40-room room Pau Hana Inn to a religious group.

Maria Holmes, administrator for molokaievents.com, said: "We wish there were more flights available, but I understand you've got to have the demand.

"It's like a Catch-22. You've got to show demand."

Holmes said her business has been packaging events, such as concerts, to include the cost of a Lahaina-Kaunakakai ocean ferry ride along with a one-night stay to help to build visitor traffic to Molokai.

For instance, her business is scheduled to hold a concert on Aug. 28 with Olomana, Kalapana, Brother Noland and the Pacific Bad Boys that includes the ferry ride and a one-night stay for $153.

Island Air President Neil Takekawa said his business has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to carry a supply of oxygen aboard flights and expects to have them aboard all flights once receiving approval.

Mollena said she hopes the federal agency's approval comes soon because her month-and-a-half-old, Kamalinokekaneokala Mollena-Kamai, needs to be taken monthly to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children on Oahu.

She said her son was born five weeks premature without his lungs fully developed and has been hooked up to an oxygen tank.

"He needs it 24-7," she said.