Use the Kayak Search to the right to find the lowest airfares anywhere!

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau wants to help you get to the Islands this summer. Their $3 million program to promote Hawaii tourism is called “Summer Fun” and offers $200 discounts on vacation packages to the Islands. For details and participating partners see gohawaii.com/summerfun.

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Northwest and Delta (codeshare flights on Delta) are offering roundtrips from Los Angeles to Honolulu for $462. We tested the fare through November and it’s still available. Hurry though, it was $404 just a couple of days ago.

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Use the Kayak Search at right to find the lowest airfare to anywhere.

According to Arthur Formmer in an article in the Houston Chronicle, now’s the time to buy your tickets for fall travel to Hawaii. He points out that after the heavy summer travel season the airlines will be cutting back the number of flights throughout the US. This means that airfares will continue to rise.

Specifically addressing the flight situation to Hawaii he quotes Hugh Crean, General Manager of Farecast.com as saying:

It’s even more important to buy your autumn airfares to Hawaii now, including your inter-island airfares. Following the recent bankruptcies or termination of service of the Hawaiian specialists ATA Airlines and Aloha Airlines, airfares both to and within the Hawaiian islands have soared. When fuel surcharges are included, the cost of flying roundtrip between Los Angeles and Honolulu can be as high as $900 for peak summer dates. The cost of flying from one Hawaiian island to another (like Oahu to Maui), which had gone down to as little as $39 each way, has recently soared to $74 and $84, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it inch its way upward to $119.

So, if you’re planning a fall getaway to the Islands, now is the best time to book your flights. You might start by looking at gohawaii.com/summerfun, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau’s page listing special offers to Hawaii. The HVCB has a $3 million program to encourage hawaii tourism by offering $200 discounts on vacation packages through these vendors.

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Let’s do a little reality check here. Looking at the Memorial weekend figures above and doing a little math we can see that Superferry is still not paying it’s bills. During this period the average passenger load was 392 per trip and the average vehicle load was 107 per trip. (The vessel made 14 trips) That generated about $21,000 in revenue per trip at $39 per passenger and $55 per vehicle. Superferry uses 6,000+ gallons of fuel per trip. At around $3.50 per gallon for marine diesel each trip costs about $21,000 for fuel alone. As you can see Superferry is just approaching the point to where it will cover just it’s fuel costs.

Why is this important? Hawaii depends on it’s interisland travel network. For passengers this network is made up almost exclusively of air carriers. Aloha Airlines is now gone. Go! Airlines parent Mesa is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Island Air has put on hold any thoughts of expansion until the current market sorts itself out. Should Go! shutdown, that would leave Hawaiian as the only large interisland air carrier. Hawaiian has just raised it’s minimum interisland fare to $64. You see where we’re going here, with little or no competition interisland air fares are going to go substantially higher.

Hawaii Superferry could provide significant passenger competition for the airlines. (not to mention it’s cargo carrying ability) At full capacity it can haul 18,000 passengers a week on the Oahu Maui run, equaling over 160 flights of Hawaiian’s Boeing 717’s. That’s the kind of competition the airlines would have to take seriously as they set their fares.

Now the reality is with the price of oil at $130 per barrel interisland fares are going to go up, on the airlines and the Superferry. But, if the Superferry is not around they’re going to go even higher.

So, we suggest that if you want to keep some competition in the market and keep interisland travel more affordable, ride the Superferry.

Photo Credit: Hawaii Superferry

Post from: Hawaii Fare Watch

Post from: Hawaii Fare Watch

Currently the Superferry leaves Honolulu at 6:30 AM each day and arrives in Maui at 9:30 a.m. The return trip arrives back in Honolulu at 2 PM.

The second voyage would leave Honolulu at 3:30 PM and arrive in Maui at 7 PM, returning back to Honolulu at 11 PM. The second sailing must be approved by the state Public Utilities Commission.

Superferry officials report that advanced bookings have “been very strong” since resumption of ferry service March 27.

Superferry promotional fares of $39 per person one-way and $55 one-way for passenger vehicles have been extend through June 5.

Superferry Website

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It is expected the merged airlines will try to trim $1 billion yearly from operating costs.  This likely means flights will be eliminated on duplicate routes.

Both Northwest and Delta offer west coast service from Los Angeles and San Francisco.  The likely reduction in the number of flights will mean a further loss of seating capacity to the islands.   The recent shutdowns of ATA and Aloha airlines has already pulled thousands of seats from this market.

For now problems with the pilots and machinists unions are likely to delay the deal.   But, the handwriting seems to be on the wall, merge or die.

So, it seems likely that sooner or later it’s goodbye to those low low west coast airfares to the islands.  Well there’s always Mexico.

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Aloha has suffered since Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. launched a new interisland carrier called go! airlines in 2006, triggering a local airfare war.

Gov. Linda Lingle said she will ask a bankruptcy judge not to allow the airline to shut down until she is satisfied the airline “exhausted all possible avenues for continuing its operations.”

Aloha Airlines’s Announcement

Link to Aloha Airlines shutdown FAQ

Hawaiian Airlines Assistance for Aloha Airlines Ticket Holders

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