Second Superferry Not Coming, At Least For Now. Why?
Oct 28, 2008
2 Comments
I honestly didn’t believe that Superferry would be bringing a second ship planned for Hawaii. Frankly, neither the political nor the economic climates are right. The very nature of the Superferry vessels themselves is also not ideal, and they appear to be better suited to military applications.
Hawaii Superferry faces problems which include:
- Political difficulties associated with serving Kauai.
- Ongoing unresolved issues related to the lack of an environmental impact study.
- Inter-island competition now including Mokulele Airlines, scheduled to launch in just three weeks.
- Estimated per passenger fuel costs far in excess of airline costs.
- Seasonal operational difficulties associated with rough winter ocean conditions.
In a press release earlier today, Superferry indicated that they will be postponing for about one year, the Hawaii launch of their second ship. It was previously due to start service to the Big Island. The company is looking for alternative short-term opportunities for placement of the vessel.
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Good points, Jeff. Here are a few more that I thought of:
I think there were a number of reasons why this happened in addition to the ones the company gave. In no particular order, they include:
1) Lehman’s wealth has probably been cut by a third to half by the recent market. Money that he had last year to keep throwing at this, he may feel he doesn’t have to waste anymore. Austal has spoken recently about commercial ferry operators running into difficulties recently on financing.
2) The State Supreme Court agreeing recently to take the appeal on Act. 2 is a strong indicator that Act. 2 may be found to be unconstitutional. I would guess they take oral arguments on that after the election and rule on it possibly by the end of the year. This could block the use of HSF2 Hull A616 and A615 for that matter until a real Chapter 343 EIS is done, which could take another year or two, and the company would have to pay for that. Better to plan something else for Hull A616 now, like a government lease.
3) I think this also signaled something about recent infighting and lack of optimism in the McCain campaign. I would say this is also a signal from inside the camp that they know they are not going to win and therefore JFL cannot count on the benefit of inside connections with McCain.
4) Ridership has probably been low recently and this only further points out the problem of running an even more cost-ineffective 4+ hour route between Oahu and the B.I.
5) Recently the State mentioned at one of the OTF meetings that they are planning on passing off all of the cost of tug services to HSF to deal with the barges. That is a lot of money and makes this even more of a money loser.
6) The Army/Navy have a HSV lease ending and funding for a new lease that could begin soon. Hull A616 needs to be tested before more construction contracts could be responsibly awarded for it’s design under JHSV. A military lease would be a relatively fixed amount to at least cover all costs, something HSF has not been able to do with the Alakai. Lastly, there has been a dramatic increase in pirate activity on the East African Coast over the past year. HSV’s have been used to deal with that. That is where Hull A616 might be more useful.
Aloha, Brad
Thanks so much Brad for all of the additional input on the Superferry’s problems. I hadn’t considered all of the issues you raised.
I really appreciate it.
Aloha, Jeff