KAILUA-KONA — Optimism blew in with Island Air’s first flight to Kona on Tuesday morning.
KAILUA-KONA — Optimism blew in with Island Air’s first flight to Kona on Tuesday morning.
The roar of twin propellers sounded the start of five daily flights between Kona International Airport and Honolulu, adding 320 inbound seats to the island’s airlift at a time when airline and tourism officials are waxing enthusiastic about West Hawaii as an emerging destination. The airline last flew to Kona in 2012.
“In March we expanded to Kauai, and today is another step forward for Island Air and all of our people,” said the company’s president and CEO David Uchiyama during a celebration that marked the airline’s return, which featured a morning blessing at the airport, food, speeches and dancing.
The airline’s executives aren’t getting specific just yet, but they’re eyeing further expansion into the island’s market, which saw steadily decreasing competition with the folding of Aloha Airlines passenger operations in 2008 and the closure of Mesa Airlines’ go! in 2014.
“I think there’s opportunity here,” Uchiyama said. “As markets mature, people discover new experiences. People have gone to Honolulu and Maui and now they’re starting to go into Hawaii Island. The rooms are available, and the experiences are here. It’s a matter of the different markets discovering it. Japan is well aware of it, and we’re going to see Korea emerge as well as China.”
The airline is working on expansion, with a goal of adding two new aircraft this year to its fleet of five 64-seat ATR-72 planes. Island Air will be testing the depth of the market along the way. Right now, the Kona bookings are running around 65 percent capacity, which is what the airline expected, Uchiyama said. Island Air offers 238 flights per week between Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii Island.
There is definitely a buzz around the Kona market these days, said Ross Birch, executive director of the Big Island Visitors Bureau.
“I’m hearing from all of our airline consultants that Kona is really hot right now,” he said.
There has been a 30 percent increase in airlift to Kona over the past three years, Birch said, and the first quarter of this year posted a 10 percent bump over the same period in 2015. Other carriers, including Korean Air and Jin Air, are looking at adding seasonal flights, Birch said.
“Adding another interisland access is going to bump us up to the next level,” Birch said of the Island Air kickoff. “There’s definitely enough market to go around. The exciting thing is knowing we have the demand. Maui and Kauai are running into compression, and people are discovering the things we have on this island. Basically, we’re finally getting recognized.”
On Tuesday, it was just nice for the airline and its 22 new employees — and for passengers — that the first day at Terminal One and Gate 5 went off without a hitch.
Roger Jensen travels frequently to sell construction equipment. Waiting for Island Air’s first flight out, Jensen recalled how the competition folded and Hawaiian Airlines stood alone as the island’s one significant carrier.
“I was like, oh no, there’s a monopoly now,” Jensen said.
Like a lot of Big Island residents, he welcomed the new competition.
“I had a go! flight cancel once and couldn’t get to Honolulu on any flight that day,” he said.
Visiting from California for a honeymoon here, Shuai Zhang and Yuhua Xiong stepped off the plane into a celebration complete with hula, song, lei and food. They and other passengers lingered and took cellphone videos of the dancers before pressing on with their travels.
“It was very stable,” Zhang said of the flight. “It’s a small plane and I thought there would be a lot of turbulence, but none at all.”
“She fell asleep,” Xiong said. “So it was a good trip.”