Following Gov. David Ige’s extension Monday of the mandatory 14-day quarantine for trans-Pacific travelers through the end of August, residents and businesses have painted a muddled picture on the state’s outlook in the near future.
Though there’s no consensus among members of the community on what a plan should look like going forward, most seem to agree extending the quarantine was the right thing to do.
“I do think it’s a great idea,” said Jill, a resident of Kona since the 1960s. “I think it’s good for the island.”
“There are so many cases on the mainland right now, it makes sense that they pushed it back,” added Bryan Clark, a father in Kona, noting that the decision makes him feel better about sending his daughter to school. “Now, I still don’t feel safe about my daughter going to school, so that’s tough. You know how kids are: they’re sneezing on their hands; they’re not the most hygienic creatures. They’re like gremlins.”
Meanwhile, airlines serving the islands appear to have grown accustomed to pushing back their restart plans. Among those delaying the reinstatement of daily flights to and from the mainland is Hawaiian Airlines, which announced July 1 that it planned a direct flight between Kona and Los Angeles and an increase interisland flights effective Aug. 1.
“We are scaling back our plans to reinstate several U.S. mainland routes next month,” said Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson Alex Da Silva. “Our existing flight schedule, which includes once daily service between Honolulu and San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles (LAX), Portland, and starting (July 15), Sacramento and San Diego, will remain in place through Aug. 31.”
Southwest Airlines was also set to increase daily flights on Aug. 1. The airline officially postponed the start to those flights on Thursday.
“Our pattern has been to ‘lift and shift’ our substantial restart of mainland service (and the doubling of our current and limited interisland service pattern to our normal offering) with each announcement by Gov. (David) Ige,” said spokesperson Brad Hawkins. “Southwest revised our flight schedule to effectively push the restart of substantial flying between the Islands and the mainland until Sept. 1, aligning to the new start date for quarantine-waived arrivals for travelers who have recently tested negative for COVID-19.”
Mokulele Airlines, focused on interisland travel, may be the one airline that isn’t worried about the delay. The company ramped up flights after the interisland travel restrictions were lifted in mid-June and is confident they can continue at this level indefinitely.
“We’re not dependent on trans-Pacific traffic; we cater to the locals, and we can sustain this level of business as long as we need to,” said Mokulele Airlines’ Chief Marketing Officer Keith Sisson. “We want the trans-Pacific business to come back, of course, and we do move a lot of visitors while they are on the islands, but we are no means held hostage by the trans-Pacific visitors.”
For local businesses, reactions have been mixed.
Some places, like Kona Commons, have found their customer base consists primarily of locals and are confident their businesses will remain strong through September.
“Since most of our customers are local residents, we anticipate that business will continue unaffected by the quarantine extension — provided that the local residents continue to sustain their income or unemployment supplements that they have already been receiving,” said a spokesperson for Kona Commons. “Additionally, our leasing and ownership teams — which are also based locally in Hawaii — have partnered with our tenants on issues that have come up during the pandemic.”
Others have expressed concern over the coming months. Quinn’s Almost by the Sea has remained afloat by serving customers via takeout since March and opened its dining room in mid-June, but owner Diane Palacol recognized the difficulties that lie ahead.
“I think that things are going to die down,” said Palocol. “It’s not only tourism, but we’re also going into kids going back to school, unemployment for federal will be stopping that extra money. I think the next couple of months will be really hard.”
If a consensus has emerged on anything, it’s the confidence businesses have in their local patrons. Many of those who have relied on the community in the past remain optimistic they’ll be in good shape when trans-Pacific tourism returns to Hawaii.
“At the end of the day, this really isn’t that big of a deal for us because we serve the local community,” said Sisson with Mokulele Airlines.
“Our local clientele are awesome,” added Palocol. “We would not have been in business for 40 years without them. We made it through (2008) with the economy. This is worse, but we’ll survive.”
