Posts Tagged ‘Air Travel’

Interisland flights aren’t immune to the global increase in flight prices. While mainland flights have gone up considerably since the first of the year, so to have interisland flights making it difficult for some people to work or even see family members.

Shortly after Aloha Airlines closed it’s doors both Hawaiian and go! raised their prices and left many people angry. A ticket on go! quickly went from $39 to $49 and didn’t show signs of slowing down. Then go! airlines lost a suit which made them own Hawaiian $52 billion and ticket prices went even higher, for both companies.

Now, as I write this, ticket prices on go! airlines, the discount interisland airline, sits at $61 one way for select flights. Most flights are even more than that, especially if you want to travel on peak times. Tickets prices for round trip have been seen for well over $150.

However, with gas prices falling in Hawaii and worldwide due to decreased demand, we may see interisland air fares come down with them. I’ve already noticed a decrease in ticket prices to the mainland with west cost tickets peaking at $1000 already retreat to half the price. Hopefully tickets between the islands will do the same.

Due to the recent economic crisis, Hawaii tourism has taken a huge blow.  In the first 9 months of 2008 Hawaii has had 9.1 percent fewer visitors via air travel coming to the islands.  That equates to just over 516,000 people.  These reductions have been seen in both mainland US visitor as well as international.  September alone saw a 19.3 percent decrease in air travelers with US mainland having the highest fall at 22.1%.

This decrease has come due to a decline in the US and world economy, the hightened cost of fuel, and the reduction of capacity by US airlines in flights to the Hawaiian islands.  First ATA, then Aloha Airlines went out of busines.  Next NWA, Continental, and United all reduced capacity to the islands.  Finally American Airlines announced that it was working to completely eliminate flights between O’Hare Airport in Chicago and Honolulu.

All this reduced capacity equates to the numbers you read above.  Less people, less money for the tourism industry of Hawaii. What does this mean for your job security? Well, if you’re in the tourism industry it could mean a lot. The unemployment rate for September in Hawaii was up 1.7% from a year ago to 4.7% while the national unemployment rate has quite a bit higher at 6.1%.

The bright spot out of all these numbers is that the average stay to Hawaii is increasing, up 1.7 percent on the year and 4.6% higher in September alone. This is equating to a decrease of only 7.6% visitor days to the islands. So while the air industry may be suffering huge losses and cutting back capacity, tourism to Hawaii is finding ways to fight back.

See all the numbers here