The residents of Lāna’i and Moloka’i continue to grapple with accessibility issues as Mokulele suspends service again. This is the second time in less than six months the airline has had to ground a portion or all of its aircraft due to maintenance-related issues.
In the past, I’ve grumbled about Hawaiian tendency to delay and cancel flights within Hawai’i fairly often – it’s one of the reasons why I made the jump to Southwest Airlines for my intra-Hawai’i travel needs when they arrived in the islands. But, that’s nothing compared to the persistent issues regarding reliable air service continuing to afflict the residents of Lāna’i and Moloka’i. That because the only scheduled air carrier serving the islands has struggled to maintain reliable operations. A three-hour delay or canceled flight is far more dire when your life literally depends on that flight.
Yet, despite all of its promises to improve over the years, Mokulele suspends service again, stranding residents of these two islands once more.
Mokulele Suspends Service Again
As you may recall, the most recent snafu forced Mokulele to ground an undisclosed portion of their Cessna 208B Grand Caravan fleet in August 2024 for “documentation discrepancies” related to landing gear parts . This, coupled with their Saab 340s being removed from service due to the unavailability of engines for those aircraft causing their schedules to be completely upended for nearly a week. The irony of that situation is that they had just received the first payment from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of their new two-year Essential Air Service (EAS) contract.
This is the first subsidized EAS contract Lāna’i has received in many decades and require Mokulele to provide 63 weekly round trips consisting of 21 weekly round trips from Lāna’i to Kahului Airport and 42 weekly round trips between Lāna’i and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Of course, the DOT is aware of Mokulele’s shortcomings, and is closely watching the airline to ensure it meets its contractual obligations.
But, now, just five months laster – almost to the date – Mokulele suspends service again, as it has had to ground its entire fleet due to “maintenance needs and an abundance of caution.”
What are these maintenance needs? The airline isn’t saying. They also cannot commit to a return to service date.
Will It Ever End?
That Mokulele suspends service again shouldn’t be all that surprising given their history since the pandemic. After all, they’re owned by a larger aviation entity than before and have virtually no competition. Plus, they also have an EAS contract now. So, what the hell? Is Southern Air Express trying to maximize profit with minimal effort? That actually wouldn’t surprise me. Mokulele is as expensive, if not more expensive to fly that Hawaiian and Southwest, but provides hugely inferior service. So, unless Southern is willing to invest more in the airline, which it doesn’t appear to want to do, then I don’t see how this ends.
Of course, there’s Alaska Air Group’s commitment to at least explore serving Lāna’i and Moloka’i. However, there’s no guarantee that anything will come of it. After all, none of their aircraft can operate out of these airports without weight restrictions, which would be very costly for the airline and passengers. Not even their now-retired Q400s would work regularly on these routes. They’d have to purchase something like ATR-72s or have another airline operate them on their behalf, as was the case with Ohana by Hawaiian.
Mokulele Suspends Service Again, Final Thoughts
That Mokulele suspends service again is completely unacceptable. Yes, if there’s a potential safety issue, they shouldn’t fly. However, that these safety issues keep popping up is concerning and inexcusable. Especially since, as Hawaii News Now reports, the airline didn’t even inform passengers of the cancellations, nor did they assist the majority of passengers with re-accomodations. Then again, when you have a monopoly, I suppose you don’t need to care for your passengers. Sad.
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