| New Airline to Provide Service to Hawaii - 03/31/2005
New Airline Plans To Fly Hawaii Skies "I started Fly Hawaii because I believe Hawaii's air carriers have a special responsibility to deliver convenient, affordable, inter-island service to local residents," Chief Executive Officer James Delano said. Fly Hawaii will be Hawaii's newest inter-island airline. Right now, it's an airline with a Web site, looking for investors and employees. It plans to use ATR-72s, a modern turboprop aircraft that can seat 80 passengers. It still needs certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites). "Our technical team has already had discussions with them, and they are prepared to have staff on board and be ready for us when we are," Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Carl Christoffersen said. There is a history of failed inter-island airlines. The last entry, Mahalo Air, which arrived in 1993, grounded just four years later. Former Aloha Airlines subsidiary Island Air has been struggling. Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines are both losing money. So how does Fly Hawaii expect to stay airborne in such a turbulent market? Delano wants to follow the blueprint of successful low-cost carriers like Southwest and JetBlue, which have frequent flights and use the Internet heavily to book a flight. They expect flight prices to go for $50 to $60 one way. "We will be much more efficient at what we do, because we are about one thing, which is serving Hawaii," Delano said. Delano expects the new airline to take off sometime early next year.
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