Will they be paying interest-only or payments to principal?
I'm also interested to see how they will cough up the money for this.

I doubt any disruptions would last long. There are surprisingly low barriers to entry in commercial avaition. If the demand is there, the planes will come pretty quickly.

True, but which existing airline would even bring a dedicated fleet of mainline aircraft to the islands to pick up AQ's slack? Doubt any airline will want to keep 10+ mainline jets that active for long. Maybe some CRJs or FlyHawaii could do the trick.

P.S.---Any news about them lately?

That's what I would expect. It wouldn't take that much capital to put together a fleet of CRJs.

Sometime in early 2006 is the latest news.

The RJ factor brings up some interesting things. I culled this out of Aviation Week (leak) and their data showed that it was actually more expensive to operate Rj's per revenue seat mile than it was to operate 737-200's. I'm not sure if that factored in maintenance costs for maintaining the older aircraft and pilot pay scales. I've only flown on an RJ once (embraer) and the space was pretty tight. I'm not sure that would go over for this market unless the price was right. What I like about the 717 is that you can fit a medium size roller luggage in the overhead. I think Island Air may be on the right track with their order of the Q400 I think it's called. Again according to Aviation Leak they can't be beat in the 200 mile market and save 30-40% on fuel. Who knows, I'd have to compare prices and actually fly the aircraft to figure out if I'd switch. Hawaiian's online check in and drive in baggage check makes it pretty persuasive for me to stay there.

Interesting stats there. Should look into this more for myself.

Agreed. RJ space (both CRJ and ERJ) are tight and will not go over very well in the Hawai'i market unless the price is right. In a market where people want regular sized jets for interisland travel, the RJ could be hard to promote.

Yes. The overhead bins on 717 are some of the largest in the industry. I believe they are 777 sized. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes. Island Air has ordered 2(???) Q400s that are putting them in the right direction for the future. They can be utilized across Island Air's more busier segments.

Are people just trying to avoid AQ?

I've been pricing an inter-island itinerary for the past couple of weeks. Both HA and AQ looked about the same in terms of pricing and availability until today.

It looks like AQ just opened up availability and is pricing about $30-40 less than HA. I'm not planning a trip next month...but rather this week actually.

Is it just me? I was considering using points, but at this rate (and based on other discussions) the cost is pretty good.

It pains me to say it, but AQ is no longer my first choice for inter-island travel.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...07&postcount=7

flew aq koa-hnl a week ago to connect to nrt, and came back aq hnl-koa this past weekend. on timel, friendly, and great pog :-)

Was the flight full? Or, wide open?

koa-hnl at 06:55 on a sunday was maybe half full. hnl-koa at 08:30 saturday was a bit less. inter-island, both aloha and hawaiian seem to run half full at the times i fly.

Try fly late-morning or early-evening and watch those flights fill to capacity! My most recent HNL-ITO trip (09:35 depart, and 13:40 return) were both overbooked! Same trend has happened to me in the past, but it must be my luck in selecting flights.

Wow - I was incognito for a few days and this thread really took off!

Some fascinating comments here which got my mind to thinking. . .

Regarding RJ's - here's the problem I see. Since using the current model EVERY flight has to go to HNL. And since HNL is gate limited. And since AQ never has a free gate for even 15 minutes all day long. A move to RJ's would in effect cut their daily capacity (and I presume revenue) by 30% - which makes no sense.

But then my mind started to wander a little wider. For example WHY does every friggen flight have to land in HNL? Maybe there is a workable RJ model based on flights from LIH - OGG, OGG - ITO, KOA - HNL? I'm certainly not saying don't fly to HNL, only that there might be enough neighbor island business to keep a small fleet of RJ's busy many cycles per day. Throw in a few stops on Oahu and perhaps the pressure cycles per days would be cut by 20 or 30% greatly reducing maintanance costs.

Let the mind wander even further. If you extended operating hours and flew a few early morning / late evening flights you might also pick up fares that otherwise go unserved.

Of course doing any of these things requires breaking out of the "me too" mode in which both AQ and HA operate.

Aloha,

Lihu'e 1k

Good points 1K, maybe with an RJ the skip HNL flights could work. I also like the late night flights. I know they would miss the connecting mainland traffic but who knows could work with the late workers.