Originally Posted by
sullim4
Can 717's serve MKK and LNY? If so, I'd expect the backup plan to be a once-daily 717 serving that day's passengers.
HA used to fly the 717s into MKK and LNY about 10 years ago as part of a twice-daily triangle routing HNL-LNY-MKK-HNL (and/or vice versa), and probably flew the DC-9s there also after Mahalo Air went out-of-business.
There were severe weight restrictions on the 717 getting out of both airports (even more so at MKK with its 4500' runway). IIRC, something like more than half the seats were blocked off departing MKK...making the route so unprofitable for HA they couldn't wait to drop it and give it to Island Air.