Mokulele Looks to ‘Turn the Corner’

Photo by Catherine Cluett Pactol

“What we’re doing right now is unacceptable,” explained Louis Saint-Cyr, president of Hawaii operations for Surf Air Mobility, which operates Mokulele Airlines. For flight-weary Molokai, residents have faced years of prolonged delays and last-minute cancellations from the sole airline provider. Now, explained Saint-Cyr, Mokulele is “out of chances.”

Saint-Cyr is the newest head of operations for Mokulele, which was acquired by Surf Air Mobility earlier this year. With new management comes a new plan for success.

Saint-Cyr laid out a straight-forward two-part strategy before a group of Molokai residents at a small meeting on Oct. 22: add more planes and fix the budget.

Surf Air Mobility, of which Mokulele comprises about 50 percent, plans on adding six new nine-seater planes to their entire fleet. The goal, explained Saint-Cyr, is to eventually have 13 to 14 nine-seater planes for Molokai. Right now, there are only eight.

Additionally, Saint-Cyr explained that Mokulele will focus on the nine-seater Cessna Grand Caravans, rather than the 28-seater SAABs.

“We are not going back to the SAABs. Those were a disaster,” he said. Over two years, the two SAABs in Mokulele’s fleet only flew on the same day twice, Saint-Cyr explained, often leading to scheduling problems when they were grounded.

In terms of improving the financial budget for the airline, Saint-Cyr said that he is looking to create a more reliable system for the airline and passengers.

“As an airline, we have to be profitable as well,” he said. “We have to rebuild this airline and we have to rebuild it understanding that we have to involve the communities…If we think that we can fix Mokulele by ourselves, we’re going to fail.”

That improved consistency for flights may mean an increase in ticket prices for customers though.

“Once we get to a point where we have a sufficient number of planes and improved reliability, the next question is going to be what are you doing about pricing,” said Saint-Cyr. He explained that the price of tickets has already “increased a bit,” with price tiering to favor bigger groups like school teams and non-profits.

At the Molokai meeting, which was organized by Alaska Airlines, Molokai residents voiced varied concerns, from facility breakdowns to drained customer service employees to poor communication from the airline regarding cancellations and delays.

“The economic costs that these residents have had to bear because of delays is not even taken into account,” said Molokai resident Dawn Bicoy.

Residents’ medical needs were a major focus as well.

“[Medical] specialists are deciding not to come back to Molokai…they’ve had it,” explained Janice Kalanihuia, president of Molokai General Hospital. “It’s tough. It’s really tough.”

Mokulele had some shaky moments this summer, especially in August and September when Molokai residents were alarmed to see that flights had been booked out for weeks in advance.

In response, Mokulele canceled almost all of its flights to Kona and instead re-directed those planes to Molokai routes.

“You took your most profitable route out to help us,” said State Senator Lynn DeCoite. “Thank you.”

DeCoite and others had further questions about the possibility of strengthening flight availability via federal subsidies like the Essential Air Service, which has successfully been applied to Lanai.

While Saint-Cyr didn’t rule out the possibility of another airline coming into the market to try for a federal subsidy, from his perspective, stability in the market is better than dueling airlines.

“This island has seen a lot of airlines come and go…we need stability in the marketplace,” he said.

And while Molokai residents have heard promises of more reliable flights and better schedules for years, Saint-Cyr remains optimistic of a change in the right direction for Mokulele.

“I think we are going to turn the corner and turn things around and do a great job,” said Saint-Cyr.

In November, Saint-Cyr said Mokulele will host another round of small group meetings or a larger community meeting open to all Molokai community members.