Was the pandemic an impediment to the recent merger of Mokulele Airlines and Makani Kai Airlines (which Schuman founded), or did it give the process greater urgency?
We were not in merger discussions prior to the pandemic. Very early on, once people first started talking about coronavirus, we started helping each other by sharing passengers and combining flights. As Mokulele saw a dip in tourist travel, we saw a dip in local demand. It was clear that if one of us could fly a full flight and the other could save the fuel, we would both be better off.
When the interisland travel quarantine was put in place, Makani Kai didn’t have the ability to continue flying. We worked with Mokulele to provide air service to our passengers who were considered essential. The merger talks developed as our cooperation levels grew.
What do you see as the main challenge of sustaining interisland airlines, given the dominance of Hawaiian Air in recent years?
Prior to the pandemic Southwest fundamentally changed the interisland marketplace between the major cities, which is what Hawaiian has historically concentrated on.
As a commuter airline, we are fine letting those big carriers compete with each other. We will continue to cater to our passengers (nine people at a time) and give them a private-style flying experience that doesn’t involve TSA screening hassles or big crowds in the main terminals.
In the COVID world that we are living in, we think that giving people the option to share a plane with only eight other passengers, from terminals having (at most) only a couple dozen people, offers extra peace-of-mind. We can offer the opportunity to fly smaller, fly safer, fly smarter. Mix that with the ability to serve the smaller, rural communities with multiple daily flights, and no other airline can compete.
Combined, Mokulele and Makani Kai will ultimately have nearly 35 departures a day from Molokai. No one — Hawaiian or Southwest — can offer that to the Molokai people. And with our new routes from Lanai, we will have seven daily departures from that island, more than any other airline. Before the merger, neither Mokulele nor Makani Kai flew the Lanai-Honolulu route at all!
Where do you see growth potential in the interisland market?
Both airlines have been really strong on Molokai, so we expect that to only get better. As a result of the merger we were able to announce a new route that neither Makani Kai nor Mokulele operated in the past: Honolulu to Lanai City began on June 29 with morning and evening flights. We are hoping to build this route to five-times-daily within a year.
In addition, Honolulu to Kapalua will be a market that we watch closely. Mokulele has interline agreements with both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, so once the trans-Pacific quarantine lifts for mainland and Asian visitors, we will be able to connect passengers from those airlines for easy, one-stop access to West Maui. We plan to do the same with Princeville once the demand returns.
Mokulele has never served Kauai. Makani Kai operated Princeville Air Flights between Honolulu and Kauai, but we did not have any connecting traffic from the mainland or Asia. This is a great example of what we can do together that neither of us could do individually.
How many employees does the combined airline have, and what advantage will it offer?
Mokulele’s parent company has a strong mainland presence, in addition to the operation here in Hawaii. In total, the combined company has just under 500 employees, with about half of them spread throughout the islands.
As we build the interisland travel base back to pre-COVID levels, we want to offer more flights throughout the day. That means more employees in Hawaii!
More broadly, what do you think is most crucial to the recovery of the airline industry?
All airline passengers have to have confidence that traveling by air does not jeopardize their health. Airlines have done a lot in terms of new cleaning procedures and policies to protect the crew and employees from exposure.
In addition, governmental entities have to allow the airlines to operate their business without unreasonable restrictions. We are hopeful that the governor’s plans to screen passengers upon arrival will satisfy the goal of keeping our state as safe as possible while also allowing our economy (and this industry) to recover.
We need to be welcoming guests, instead of turning them away or putting them into quarantine. It sounds like the state will be transitioning to a policy like this in the future. That will be good for our airline, our passengers and the entire Hawaiian economy.
THE BIO FILE
>> Title: Owner of Magnum Helicopters and vice president of Pacific operations for Mokulele Airlines
>> Years in the business: 24 in aviation (the Schuman family has been involved in the transportation business in Hawaii since 1891)
>> Family: Wife Diane, three children and five grandchildren
>> Family background: Richard Schuman is of Hawaiian and German heritage. His great-grandfather immigrated to the U.S. in 1891 and joined his older brother who was selling wagons, carriages and livestock on Oahu. In the early 1900s, the family brought the first automobiles to Hawaii, establishing multiple dealerships over the years until exiting the automobile industry in 2005.
>> Fun fact: Richard Schuman has flown over 250 helicopter videography and stunt missions for movies and TV shows, such as “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum, P.I.”
