Mokulele Airlines has been awarded a four-year, $1.76 million federally subsidized contract to provide 12 round-trip flights a week between Waimea on Hawaii island and Kahului.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, seeking to maintain air service for Waimea, granted an Essential Air Service contract to Mokulele after also considering bids from Makani Kai Air Charters and Pacific Wings.
Makani Kai, which already has an EAS contract for the Honolulu-Kalaupapa, Molokai, route, submitted a bid for Waimea-Honolulu service while Pacific Wings proposed ground transportation only between Waimea and Kona with a nine-passenger van.
EAS contracts provide federal subsidies to airlines to encourage them to provide service for rural communities.
Kona-based Mokulele will begin Waimea-Kahului service Sept. 21 and will replace Pacific Wings, which ceased regular service in Hawaii in mid-June but had continued the Waimea-Kahului route under order of the DOT. Pacific Wings notified the DOT in March that it planned to end its subsidy-free Waimea-Kahului service effective June 12, but the DOT ordered Pacific Wings to continue service until another carrier could replace it because the community otherwise would be left without air service.
"We’re excited to be chosen for it," Mokulele CEO Ron Hansen said Tuesday. "We’ve been up at Kamuela and Waimea at community meetings and answered questions. We see it as an opportunity to continue providing service to small communities in Hawaii. We hope it will be as successful as our other routes in Hawaii. Our system average is over an 80 percent load factor (percentage of seats filled)."
Mokulele, which was given the option by the DOT to mix in Waimea-Honolulu flights, plans to begin Waimea-Kahului service with an introductory $59 one-way offer, or $118 round trip — far less than the $480 round-trip fare that Pacific Wings lists on its website for the same service. Mokulele initially plans to fly two round trips a day Monday through Friday and one round trip each on Saturday and Sunday.
"I know they were expensive and why the community was interested in a replacement," Hansen said. "You’ve got to be really motivated to pay that ($480) for a round trip."
The EAS contract will give Mokulele annual subsidies of $494,291, $434,411, $417,310 and $412,389.
The DOT said in its decision that the selection of Mokulele was "straightforward" and that its proposals were significantly less expensive than that of Makani Kai.
"Also, the overwhelming number of parties submitting comments recommended that we select Mokulele," the DOT said. "The commenters favoring Makani Kai were largely customers of that carrier in Kalaupapa, who favored Makani Kai because of their familiarity with its good service at that other destination. However, Mokulele is a known quantity in the islands as well, and their historical service at other communities received praise from many commenters."
Mokulele, which will initiate service July 19 between Kona and Kapalua, Maui, has been aggressively expanding since it was purchased by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based TransPac Aviation Inc. from go! parent Mesa Air Group in November 2011.
It has more than doubled its daily flights to about 100 from 40 since that time and increased its fleet of nine-seat Cessna Grand Caravan turboprops to nine from four.
