Can Hawaiian Air help move the State of Hawaii forward?
69 thoughts on “Hawaiian Air Remains Silent On Shutdown With Huge Cuts Looming”
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Some day, with any luck, this pandemic issue will end up in the Hawaiian history books. People will be able to look back and have a better understanding of why it all happened. I read an article in the Honolulu Star Advertiser where Lt. Gov Josh Green said that there is pre-arrival testing plan in place. It’s the 72 hour pre-arrival plan. All it needs is approval from Gov. Ige. Most likely Hawaii needs to deal with its internal difficulties with the Covid disease before it can deal with tourist issues. You’re not talking about a big government and it can only deal so many issues at once. Hawaiian Airlines has a number of hurdles it will need to get over in the future. One of the very biggest issues is Southwest Airlines has Hawaiian Air in their sights. My best guess is that as soon as SW gets back into service its 37 Max8 aircraft its going to direct aim at Hawaiian Air. That should happen in the first half of next year. I don’t know how this is going to play out but you could certainly write a book about it.
Mahalo Guys.
Hi Roy.
We’ll be glad to look back at this in history rather than how it appears currently, on the ground.
Thanks.
Aloha.
It’s really quite simple, Hawaii needs to follow exactly what Tahiti is doing. I am currently here on vacation (because Hawaii wouldn’t have us), and the requirements for testing, travel tracking form, couldn’t have been easier. Everything was clearly communicated through the Tahitian government and Air Tahiti Nui.
You fill out an online travel form 3 days prior to departure, which includes all your contact info, where you are traveling, dates of travel, where you are staying and the contact info for your lodging; you get a Covid test 3 days prior (on the Air Tahiti Nui website they gave a recommended place in North Hollywood, and a list of others, (the test could not be a rapid test it had to be a specific type of test, they turned people away from boarding if it was not the right test), you get your results back in 24 hours generally; you show your travel form and negative test results at checkin (no online checking in) and you’re good to go. Then when you land, they give each person a self Covid nasal and oral kit, which you perform on yourself 4 days later and turn in to your hotel or an approved health center. If your 2nd test is negative you don’t hear anything, if positive, they know where you are, and you are picked up and taken to Papeete for quarantine (at your own expense) for 2 weeks or until you test negative. Then once you are here and enjoying yourself, all the same precautions are taken as at home, masks in public places, reminders to wash hands, if you are experiencing symptoms call a doctor, etcetera, and in the more touristed areas they have health ambassadors in bright turquoise shirts walking around reminding visitors about taking precautions, while being kind and welcoming.
Maybe all the above isn’t feasible because of the sheer number of visitors to Hawaii as compared to Tahiti, but they need to try something, and this seems to be working.
Thanks.
Hi Shannon.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Testing is so important. I wouldn’t want to risk sitting in a plane with people who aren’t tested
The behavior of mainland tourists in HI indicates that too many of them wouldn’t follow such a strict regimen. Too many US would-be tourists are screaming about any restrictions at all. You are an exception – have a great vacation!
As a Hawaiian air frequent flier member with reservation booked well in advance for October I agree with and wholeheartedly support the suggestions within this article that would allow for the state to immediately be able to receive travelers from the west coast. What’s so hard it expensive about checking temperatures – they do it in restaurants. And they could invest in rapid testing for the airports? Makes no sense to basically starve Hawaiian businesses like this
Thanks for hearing me out…
Hawaii needs to address the double edge sword of Covid and Economy together and mitigate the risks. Oahu seems to be a problem in itself, and just like mainland states have done, the entire state of Hawaii should not be treated all the same and each island/county could be weighed individually for tourism.
For instance. Maui, Kauai, and the BI could each open to tourism with the proper pre-travel test (and arrival tests) protocols in place. Again, Hawaii gov’t needs to get off their A$$ and whomever is in charge of this get it rolling. Alaska already has a process model in place and Tulsi Gabbard recently commented on a podcast that she recently went through Alaska’s process while traveling their for active duty drills and was impressed.
Each island should only allow direct from mainland flights to avoid quarantine. This is because it has been documented that trans pacific travelers going through Oahu were able to skirt the quarantine due to a trans-pacific flight with an inter-island connection.
As far as comments I’ve read about the hotel industry requiring 4-6 weeks of lead time…forget that. The islands should open when they can and let the hotels figure out how they want to ramp up for tourism individually. I am sure they will be relieved just from the fact it is open. I think the island is going to need a soft, gradual and layered opening anyway…which starts with opening!!!
If Oct 1st happens, being it is usually a shoulder season, that may be the soft opening the islands need in order to be fully ready (and make sure processes are working) by Thanksgiving and the holiday weeks ahead. If it gets moved again, it better be a firm decision to adhere to it.
Hopefully some of the new blood coming into the positions within the Gov’t decision makers will make these hard choices. A laid back culture is a mainstay of island culture, but Ige needs to put this aside and look after its residents in both economy and health.
Hi Craig.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Bleeding through $3 million every day, Hawaiian Airlines had little choice. United announced furloughs for 16,370 of its nearly 100,000 workers, effective 1 October. Delta s furloughing 1,941 pilots. American 19,000 employees on Oct 1. I believe things won’t start to stabilize until the vaccine is available, but with only 50% of people saying they will get the vaccine, “normal” is a long way off.
The airline numbers are worse than that: United said 36,000 employees, or 45% of its front-line workers in the USA and more than a third of its overall workforce of 95,000, face layoffs on or around Oct. 1. The most affected groups: flight attendants and airport customer service and gate agents, which account for 26,000 of the 36,000.
We have tests going on right now in Western New York, because our counts went up, with a 15 minute turnaround.
My heart goes out to the employees of Hawaiian Airlines. With the best service and incredible hospitality, they’re the best in the business in the Hawaiian Islands routes.
Desperate times demand desperate measures.
The antics of all polititians have been reprehensible.
Mahalo to Beat of Hawaii for exposing the games played at the highest levels imaginable.
Hi Polly.
Thanks for your many comments!
Aloha.
I’m not being able to book round trip flights from SEA to Kona via HNL. Since there won’t be change charges, one would think that HAL would start booking flights a year in advance so that they can better anticipate passenger needs. The same applies to the other airlines.
At the end of the day, it’s not any one specific airline’s responsibility to solve the state’s public health problems–though I certainly believe that the people who run Hawaiian Airlines could absolutely do a better job dealing with the pandemic than the people who run the state of Hawaii.
And that’s because corporations and their shareholders–unlike states and counties–demand results. And if the current management can’t deliver those results, they are quickly and easily replaced. Oh were it only so simple to do that in America at the state and county level….
But, yeah, if I were a business that relied almost entirely on tourism to survive–and I had lost a half a billion dollars in market capitalization and–and another half a billion dollars in cashflow in 2020–I’d certainly be raising a pretty big stink with state officials–not to mention a pretty big lawsuit against the state–for failing to act in a professional, effective, and timely manner–to implement a safe, affordable, and effective testing program–which–short of a vaccine–is the only way tourism is going to be allowed to start up again.
Essentially the state of Hawaii has flushed 6 months down the drain–not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars completely wasted on virtually zero effective testing, zero effective contact tracing, and zero effective quarantine enforcement. We had an amazing head start on the virus–SUPER low numbers for months and months and months–and the governor and virtually every department head just stuck their heads in the sand and hoped it would all magically go away–just like the president said it would.
The question for the Hawaiian people really is “What now?” Do we allow these clowns to keep passing the buck and doing nothing??? Allow them to keep destroying the financial lives of a vast number of Hawaiians–whose jobs and businesses are disappearing and failing at a pace never experienced before in the state’s history…???
Sorry but I don’t understand. “Essentially the state of Hawaii has flushed 6 months down the drain” followed by “We had an amazing head start on the virus–super low numbers for months and months and months”
So it looks like the 6 months weren’t wasted at all. And HI still has one of the lowest C-19 rates in the US, if not the world.
Hawaiian Airline should now get involve Air Fright service Hawaii to the West Coast,and inter island service.