Airport Delays

[TomK]

That would be bad as well. But it would be just fine if the airport had spare engines on standby with all the staff needed to replace the engine, fix the runway, and fly the plane. You can imagine the chaos if the spare parts dept didn't have a spare baggage scanner on hand as well in case one of them broke down at the same time.

I have no idea who is claiming there should be spare jet engines and staff needed to replace those jet engines, but I do find it interesting that crews AND equipment were dispatched and flown into the Hilo Airport from Oahu BEFORE the actual shutdown of the Kona Airport, which occurred at 4:20PM Monday and by 4:30 AM Tuesday, the runway was repaired and opened.

That's probably because they couldn't land in Kona but had to be on the island. You can't have a crew fix the runway on Kona if they're in Honolulu. And where else could they land? Waimea? I also don't know what your source is but it's clear they knew there was a problem before 4:20 pm and flights were diverted - 4:20 pm was the time they closed the airport, not the time they found a problem. And, if you hadn't noticed, I hinted that this would be fixed on Tuesday morning.

And none of this would have improved if passengers were dumped in Hilo without any legacy airline service, staff or facilities.