Starting in a month, one Hawaii airport will become further underserved due to an interisland flight switch-up. Mokulele Airlines is set to end some of its regular service.
Mokulele announced that it would end all flights between Hilo and Maui (Kahului-OGG) beginning August 1. Mokulele will move planes to support other routes, including a new flight that will move to its Kahului to Kona schedule each evening, plus more service to and from Lanai and Molokai.
Mokulele is offering either refunds or re-accommodation at no additional cost on Mokulele or on Hawaiian Airlines to those passengers who are being inconvenienced.
The now-canceled flights were needed previously when Hawaiian Air ended its service on that route during Covid. Hawaiian has since resumed its flights, which obviates the need for more flights on this route.
Mokulele remains the only carrier providing service to Lanai and Molokai. The airline said it wants to add flights to and from there during popular times of the day.
Mokulele increases flights between Kahului and Kona.
As a follow-on to its commitment to filling voids in Hawaii travel, Mokulele is adding a new evening flight that isn’t provided by either of the primary interisland carriers, Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Mokulele sees this as aiding with same-day connections that can be challenging between the mainland and Hawaii.
Mokulele exits Hilo service entirely.
The airline said that all of the employees at their soon-to-be-closed Hilo station are being offered positions both at any of their other Hawaii stations or at any of its parent (Southern Airways) locations on the mainland.
According to the airline, Mokulele service between Kahului and Hilo will not be terminated but is being suspended indefinitely. No date has been set for a return to daily service on this route.
It is long past time for some of Hawaii’s business entrepreneurs and financial investment leaders to attempt to reestablish Aloha Airlines as a commercial enterprise. Young Brothers holes to FAA certificate but the old employees have the copyright to the name. This may be the time to build new (old) local airline on the scale need to create the competition Hawaii needs in the local air travel market.
We very much enjoyed the Mokulele service between ITO and OGG. It allowed an easy way to visit LNY. The flight itself, at low altitude along the Hawaii coast, was part of the enjoyment. Unfortunately, now we’ll either have to drive 2 1/2 hours to KOA or buy separate tickets and connect through OGG or HNL.
This is a shame, and I hope the service will come back.
This is so sad! Hilo was a vision for the future of jet travel. I remember when Northwest, United and PanAm would stopover at ITO to pick up passengers on their way to the mainland. (And, usually it was raining).
I wish Empire Airlines and the Ohana brand would come back to the islands