Further reaction yesterday to Wednesday’s announcement of the merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines included little faith that interisland fares can remain low without competition. “Most of the people I’ve talked to don’t really believe that’s going to happen.
Further reaction yesterday to Wednesday’s announcement of the merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines included little faith that interisland fares can remain low without competition.
“Most of the people I’ve talked to don’t really believe that’s going to happen. They’re going to find ways around it (a pledge to keep fares at present levels for two years), and prices will go up,” said Danny Casey, president of the Hawai’i chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents and an agent with Quality Travel in Honolulu.
“In the long run, I think the consumers are going to be hurt,” he said. “Travel agents are going to be hurt, too, without competition, because we’re going to be at the discretion of the airline. We don’t know whether they want to work with us or not. Unless there’s another airline we can go to, we’re stuck with whatever they dictate.
“I’m a little concerned” that traveling interisland could get more expensive, said Sherrill Kennedy of Po’ipu.
Besides her paycheck as a part-time teller at First Hawaiian Bank, she and her husband are retired and on fixed incomes, so increases in interisland fares would likely translate to decreases in leisure and shopping travel for the couple, she said.
“Shopping is limited here,” she noted.
Cheryl Lovell-Obatake of Nawiliwili, whose daughter attends the University of Hawai’i-Hilo, may see her less if higher fares are a result of the merger.
“I’m wondering about flight fares. Are they going to be higher or lower?” Lovell-Obatake asked.
“I think it’s beneficial for the state,” Wailua resident Sonny Waialeale said about the merger. “The state can’t support two airlines,” but “keeping fares within reason is a concern.”
Bonnie Kakinami of Koloa said she’s concerned about the end of competition, which she feels keeps fares reasonable and service levels high. She said she has two sons attending school on O’ahu and has flown often on both airlines and thinks both are good. But she also is concerned, like most everyone, about what the elimination of competition will mean to fares.
“It’s expensive,” she said of the current state of interisland air travel. And the difference between what new president Greg Brenneman of the combined interisland carriers hopes to do to in Hawai’i and what he did during his storied turnaround of Continental Airlines is that Aloha and Hawaiian are commuter airlines to Hawai’i residents, she added.
If higher fares are a result of the merger, the Alayvilla family of Hanapepe will travel less, said Brenda Alayvilla, a teller at First Hawaiian Bank.
Having no interisland air competition would be a bad thing, said Alayvilla, whose family travels interisland about four times a year.
Casey said the “biggest concern” of he and other travel agents is that the merger will leave a “monopoly. There will be no competition,” which could hurt consumers.
He said the merged airlines “could really limit the amount of flights into particular islands or particular airports, and unless they know that they can make money off of it, they’ll be very limited. Especially the consumers” on islands other than Oahu “should be very concerned about this merger.”
Expansion of mainland routes could further erode service to Kaua’i and other islands if the merged airlines “focus all their energies towards becoming the major inbound carrier,” Casey said. That would not “service the needs of the locally traveling public,” he added.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
