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New Airline Flying Inter-Island for $39 One Way
A new inter-island carrier just began selling one-way fares on its Web site for $39, sparking an airfare war in Hawaii. Phoenix based Mesa Air Airlines said its new "Go" Airlines will start flying between  Honolulu and Lihue, Kauai; Kahului, Maui; Hilo, Big Island and Kailua-Kona, Big Island on June 9th.
Mesa is one of the nation's largest regional carriers with 182 jets, 5,000 employees and annual revenues of $1 billion. Flying to more than 170 cities under the America West Express and other brand names, it is the largest company to enter Hawaii's exclusive inter-island market, dominated for decades by Hawaiian and Aloha airlines. Recently Island Air was spun off of Aloha airlines and also operates independently in the islands, flying prop planes.
"It's strategically the most important endeavor that we've embarked upon since I've been with the company", said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa's president and chief executive. Hawaiian and Aloha both recently emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization and are responding quickly to the new challenger.
The night before Mesa's scheduled news conference in Honolulu, Aloha and Hawaiian announced they were selling a limited number of $39 seats through April 7th for travel June 9th through September 30th. That's nearly half the usual lowest fare.
"We didn't do this to trigger a fare war", Ornsteim said about his company's low fares. "We did it really because this is a price that we know will get people to fly more frequently. I want to put a lot of people on the aircraft. We want people to try our product"
"In the 'good old days', airfares were $50 one way on both Aloha and Hawaiian, so I have no doubt Go Airlines will be successful based on pricing alone. The icing on the cake is that this is a carrier with in depth experience in the airline industry" commented Herb Lee.
Costco Still Coming
Although delayed for about a year, our new Costco is slated to open this August. Whether you're for or against another big box store, you'll probably be very happy with the Costco 16 pump gas station also slated to open. Traditionally Costco sells their gasoline at rock bottom prices, something that would be very much appreciated on this island where a gallon of regular gas is currently $3.10.
Hawaii Superferry on Track
The Hawaii Superferry secured $210 mission in financing and plans to begin service between the islands in early 2007.  The service will provide interisland transportation for 800 people and 250 cars. Gale and I recently took a similar ferry between Vancouver and Nanaimo, British Columbia. What a treat! The ferry was ultra modern with comfortable seating, wireless internet access, sit down and fast food restaurants, a gift shop and clean bathrooms. What more could you want? We can't wait for service to begin so we can take our car on inter island trips (and of course load it up with goodies for the return trip).
March Mudness
Anyone who has vacationed on our island in March knows to expect lots of sunshine, with blue skies and white puffy clouds, right? Well March, 2006 will go down in the record books, confounding everyone, including the weather experts. Not only was March the wettest March since record keeping began in 1950, it was the wettest month of ANY year going back to 1950. And not just a little bit wetter, a whole bunch wetter. Lihue, which normally averages a little under 4 inches of rain in March, had 37 inches. The story was the same all over the island. It seemed like a day did not go by without flash flood warnings.
And unfortunately in the early morning hours of March 14th the Ko Loko Reservoir on the north shore of Kauai breached, sending 300 million gallons of water pouring into the Wailapa Stream near Kilauea between 5:00 and 5:30am. The wall of water filled the Morita Reservoir, then overran the highway, carved a 150 feet wide swath across the landscape and swept away everything in its path including trees and two homes occupied by seven people. The homes were literally knocked off their foundations and swept away. The loss of life was greater than in either of the past two hurricanes that hit Kauai..
Although Kuhio Highway in Kilauea was initially closed, it has since been reopened. State and federal officials are also completing inspections of all dams and reservoirs on Kauai and throughout the State to make certain they are safe. My personal thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of all those swept away by this tragic event.
Choo-Choo Coming This Summer
Kauai's only railroad will begin operations this summer. Expect to see a 2.3 mile trip through the grounds of Kilohana Plantation and nearby acres. For any of you that don't recognize the site, Gaylord's Restaurant and Luau are located here. Although I haven't ridden the Sugar Cane Train in Maui, it looks like this one will be similar, with an emphasis on local crops grown on Kauai as well as historic trains. Should be fun.
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