08-05-2006, 06:20 AM
The newest airline in the islands is go!, which has set off a price war with one-way interisland fares as low as $29 plus fees and taxes during a recent short-term sale and $39+ on a more regular basis. Aloha and Hawaiian have matched these fares in most cases. As usual, "not all seats on all flights are offered at these prices," but if one is flexible as to schedule, cheapies can be found. Hawaiian is suing go! over allegations that they used confidential info from Hawaiian's bankruptcy reorganization filings to get an unfair advantage and that they use the word "Hawaiian" inappropriately on their website. Hawaiian has also more or less publicly stated that go! intends to force one or more of the old-line interisland carriers out of business. We'll see where all that goes.
An airline new to the Big Island is ATA which offers the first non-stop service from Hilo to the mainland in 20+ years. They fly daily to and from Oakland at reasonable prices. This is great for folks flying to the Western states, but if you need to connect to the Midwest, South, or East, the flight to Oakland gets there too late to make reasonable onward connections. Despite this, they have done well enough to change to a bigger aircraft, at least for the rest of the summer vacation season.
Although not exactly brand new, there are three commuter airlines flying smaller propeller aircraft interisland. These are Island Air (formerly owned by Aloha, I believe,) Pacific Wings, and Mokulele. These guys fly from commuter terminals where security and ticketing processes are far faster and more informal than in the main terminals. Go! flies out of the Honolulu commuter terminal, but I think they fly out of the main terminal in Hilo.
Aloha,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 08/05/2006 10:27:06
An airline new to the Big Island is ATA which offers the first non-stop service from Hilo to the mainland in 20+ years. They fly daily to and from Oakland at reasonable prices. This is great for folks flying to the Western states, but if you need to connect to the Midwest, South, or East, the flight to Oakland gets there too late to make reasonable onward connections. Despite this, they have done well enough to change to a bigger aircraft, at least for the rest of the summer vacation season.
Although not exactly brand new, there are three commuter airlines flying smaller propeller aircraft interisland. These are Island Air (formerly owned by Aloha, I believe,) Pacific Wings, and Mokulele. These guys fly from commuter terminals where security and ticketing processes are far faster and more informal than in the main terminals. Go! flies out of the Honolulu commuter terminal, but I think they fly out of the main terminal in Hilo.
Aloha,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 08/05/2006 10:27:06