The only “wild card” in airline labor negotiations which could have an impact on available seats between the islands and mainland during this summer’s peak travel months would be talks between Northwest Airlines and its mechanics, according to a University
The only “wild card” in airline labor negotiations which could have an impact on available seats between the islands and mainland during this summer’s peak travel months would be talks between Northwest Airlines and its mechanics, according to a University of Hawai’i labor economist.
Dr. Lawrence W. Boyd, who is with the UH West O’ahu branch’s Center for Labor Education and Research, figures the coast is clear for a smooth summer at the airports, even if fewer visitors reach these sunny shores due to an anticipated downturn compared to 2000’s record arrivals performance.
United Airlines, which has the most flights from the mainland to Hawai’i, was expected to wrap up negotiations with its 25,000 flight attendants before the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) counts strike-vote ballots next Monday, Boyd said.
“I think United is going to settle,” Boyd said yesterday, adding that the Delta Airlines subsidiary’s pilots strike won’t have much impact here. Delta is not a major carrier in Hawai’i, he said.
A United strike “would have a profound impact” on Hawai’i, he said. But the flight attendants at the employee-owned airline aren’t likely to strike, he added.
At dispute between United and its attendants, according to the AFA, is a union concern that United would acquire US Airways and attempt to operate it without flight attendants on United’s seniority list, in violation of contract job-security provisions.
Still, Sue Kanoho of the Kaua’i Visitors Bureau worries about any disruption of scheduled airline service to the state. She said she is encouraging Aloha Airlines to consider non-stop service to the mainland from Lihu’e.
A strike by Northwest Airlines’ mechanics, which would impact availability between the mainland and Hawai’i, would be something of a crisis given the projection of soft visitor arrival numbers for most of the rest of this year, she said.
If Delta’s transpacific service is disrupted by a strike action, “we will see a negative impact to our visitor counts, because air seats are really important to visitor arrivals. It’s a concern right now,” Kanoho said. “We’re facing a soft market as it is, so anytime we see these blips it has a ripple effect that does impact us for the year.
“Any time we get into any strike on any level, I think customer service is impacted. But when the flights are either delayed or canceled, you’re getting into not only customer service but lack of availability, and that’ll really impact” the islands, she said. “Right now, we don’t need that. Right now we need as much availability as possible, so that when we’re out there promoting and pushing, the seats are there for us to fill.”
While the visitors bureau doesn’t have a specific plan to address possible downturns or labor actions, it is considering on a monthly basis whether there will be a need to shift funds or priorities in response to market actions.
“I have to say that right now, this is one of the first years where we’ve really got our ear to the ground and we’re really sitting and looking at plans and whether we have to either move funds or reallocate or shift programs,” Kanoho said.
“And we just ramped up our wholesaler program significantly, to try to drive more business to the various properties,” she said. “Our feeling is, things are a little dicey, and we’re wanting to kind of keep an ear out not only here locally for hotel rooms and see where their availability is, but also, if we were to lose an air carrier coming in, what can we do to step up, say, a Sun Trips that’s already coming in, or anything that’ll help the business on the other side.”
Sun Trips has a weekly non-stop flight between California and Lihu’e, and United Airlines has daily non-stop service between Lihu’e and both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The availability of seats inter-island, via Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines, is another important factor, as the various visitor destination groups seek to build cores of multi-island visitors, she said.
“This has been a year where we’re really trying to be aggressive in certain areas, to try and make sure that we’re not just branding, but driving the business as well as best we can.”
The visitors bureau has stepped up its efforts to sell the island to wholesalers who can in turn sell the island to visitors, to encourage more business for the island this year, rather than waiting until the fall when arrival figures typically soften, she noted.
And there are airfare deals to be had, both for travel beginning and ending in Hawai’i, and for those visiting from the mainland, said one prominent local travel agent.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
