Hawaiian, JAL seek waiver for joint venture
HONOLULU — Hawaiian Airlines and Japan Airlines are seeking to create a joint venture they say would provide consumers with lower fares, increased capacity and more choices.
The carriers petitioned the U.S. Department of Transportation and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for immunity from antitrust laws. Hawaiian and JAL hope to obtain government approval later this year, which would allow them to launch their new joint venture in the second quarter of 2019.
The joint venture, which would be Hawaiian’s first, would be expected to build on the codeshare partnership that was announced between the two carriers in March. The JV would allow the carriers to coordinate marketing and sales efforts and share costs and revenue on their joint venture routes.
Mike Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant for The Boyd Group, called the JV a “brilliant” move that would benefit the carriers, their passengers and the Hawaii destination in general.
The joint venture could provide improved access for Hawaiian Airlines to 34 destinations throughout Japan, including Nagoya and Okinawa, as well as 11 points in Asia beyond Japan. JAL could benefit from enhanced access to Hawaiian’s neighbor island network and its nonstop flights to Honolulu from Haneda and Sapporo.
Hawaiian and JAL estimate that transitioning into a joint venture would bring an additional 162,000 to 350,000 passengers to Hawaii.
Rat is blamed
for power outage
HONOLULU — Utility crews Wednesday night worked to restore power to Iroquois Point after the main electrical substation serving the area was taken down earlier that day by a rat.
Hawaiian Electric spokeswoman Shannon Tangonan said crews worked to install a mobile substation to serve the neighborhood situated on the Ewa-side entrance to Pearl Harbor channel.
Tangonan said the utility started getting reports of the outage at about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
An investigation found that a rat got into the Iroquois Point substation equipment, causing fuses to blow and the complete loss of power to the Kapilina Beach Homes, she said.
HECO provides service up to and including the transformer, officials said, while the electrical infrastructure in the community is serviced by Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii.
Hawaiian Electric said crews installed the mobile substation for the military to start restoring power after 9 p.m.
The oceanfront community has more than 3,000 people.
Big Isle tourism campaign gets love in Ohio
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Hawaii Island Visitors Bureau, the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce launched a social media campaign to convince would-be travelers to come to Hawaii despite everything they’ve seen and heard about the Kilauea volcano eruption.
Businesses on the Big Island are being encouraged to post photos and videos showing the beauty of the island and include the hashtags #ExploreIslandofHawaii and #VisitIslandofHawaii.
The message is that Hawaii Island is open for business.
Drew and Cindy Abas, a married couple from Ohio, spontaneously became part of the effort when they were interviewed by their local TV news about their recent trip to Hawaii.
The family spent a week on the Big Island in May, and the Abases calmly told the folks at home in Cincinnati that their trip was great.
They even assured folks at home that volcanic smoke and ash didn’t affect their trip because the trade winds were blowing the haze out to sea.
