donnyb

I got this second hand. Apparently the last go! flight HNL to ITO on 7/7 was scheduled to arrive at around 10:30pm, did not arrive till after 1:00am(?) airport was basically closed down, no ground crew to unload baggage, passengers had to come back in the morning to get their bags(?)
Anyone know anything about this? Sounds awful....

skierbri10

Yes, maintenance issue.

DanTravels

Ouch! 3 hours, though? Did they pull the plane and wait for another to come back from another station to replace it? Or did they actually have to fix it then and there?

I had AQ go mechanical on me this January HNL-ITO, but they had another plane relatively handy so we were only delayed 1 hour. (Thankfully AQ's baggage handlers stayed 'til we got in, but the rest of the airport was basically a ghost town by then, anyway!)

How many more CRJ's does Go! have coming in the near future? I don't remember the plan, but at some point, you've gotta have a spare sitting at HNL all the time, yes?

slippahs

Flight aware has this particular flight arriving into ITO at 12:30 a.m.:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/A...957Z/PHNL/PHTO

To echo Dan's post: Ouch.

cblaisd

In a place where staying "open late" is 8 or 9pm, I wonder if go sufficiently realized what a disaster a flight delayed until a 12:30 a.m. arrival would be? ITO is dead enough at 8pm, and a 2 hour delay then would be very inconvenient, but 12:30 a.m. is almost getting-up time here

DanTravels

Yeah... uh... that day. That same page on Flight aware shows departure and arrival times over the course of about a week... it looks like it typically departs between 9:30 and 9:40 PM, and arrives between 10:00 and 10:10 PM... but the day after that, uh, early-morning arrival, the flight was late again, leaving at 10:56 PM and arriving at 11:27 PM.

Chalk it up to growing pains, I guess.

Agreed. At that time of night, there shouldn't be anything commercial in the air over the Big Island. The last passenger flight out of Kona is a bit before 11, and Aloha Cargo pretty much only runs 'til around midnight in one direction, then the early-morning stuff starts up around 4 (possibly, for cargo) or 5. And the neighbor-island airports tend to stay open 'til the last passenger flight goes in or out, then they roll up the sidewalks.

I highly doubt the car rental agencies or parking lot at ITO stayed open late enough for Go! either of those nights... but hey, the local taxis might have been happy with the extra fares.

skierbri10

It is unfortunate for the pax, but that kind of thing happens once in awhile. All airlines have that problem. All I know is that the Auto pilot was reset in HNL and then when it landed in Kona the error message came on again. Since we contract our mx with United in Kona, we had to wait for mx in Kona to fix it, which took 4 times longer than it should have. When the AC got back to HNL a IOC was replaced. I do know that the pax were taken care of monetarily. ^

asu-ua772

IIRC, all of the CRJs they planned for go! are already on the property. It includes the jets needed to sustain scheduled service plus one (1) spare.

I recently took a look at the go! timetable per their website, then looked on Flightaware, and I couldn't find these particular flights anywhere on the timetable:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASH1101
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASH1102

Is this the spare? Or something else?

skierbri10

Those are repo flights.

hal717200

I believe FlightAware.Com actually shows the time the flight plan was closed. ATC usually closes an aircraft's flight plan while they are beginning the approach. It probably landed 5-10 minutes after 12:30... it depends if they were given a visual or had to do the entire approach (the Tower @ ITO closes at 10:00 pm).

Doesn't sound too fun for the passengers at all.

donnyb

Again, second hand... I heard they got off the plane and went down to the baggage area & waited around but nothing happened. Finally someone told them they would have to come back in the morning for their bags, there was no one there to unload them. There were no taxis around either, and all they got was a $25 cert for a future flight.

skierbri10

Hmmm....I know I saw them getting meal vouchers. Sucks but at least they got home. Most of the people flying those last flights are locals.

cblaisd

I've emailed the local Hilo newspaper, suggesting they may want to look into this story.....

lihue1k

Few years ago I booked the dreaded Southwest 444 from LAS to SJC with a scheduled arrival of 9:30PM.

First departure was delayed 8:00 to 9:00, then 9:00 to 10:00 and finally deaprted about 12:30AM, arriving SJC at 2:00.

I admit, few of us had stuck it out for the flight to that late hour, but I appreciated that Southwest didn't just cancel and leave us stranded.

My point, it could happen anywhere, and it's no fun when it does.

One thing I know for sure, it'd never happen with AQ. They'd just cancel the thing and leave everyone in HNL.

Myself, I'd rather have the choice of going - with all the problems - rather than having somebody in an office somewhere making the decision for me.

Lihue1k

DanTravels

I know AQ will operate their last outbound of the night (HNL-ITO) 1 hour late, 'cos I've been on it 1 hour late. But they've got a revenue return flight, I think. Does Go! actually pick up passengers at ITO after 10pm for service to HNL?