Mokulele Responds to Storm Damages

As you may have heard, during the intense storms two weeks ago, two of Mokulele’s aircraft were damaged (and taken out of service) by an Amazon cargo container which was caught in a severe wind and thrown into them at the Honolulu International Airport. 

Thank goodness it was the middle of the night and no one was injured! Nevertheless, losing two airplanes has caused considerable pain in our system. We are working diligently both to repair these airplanes and to bring additional ones over the ocean from the mainland. 

Also during this time, almost every Hawaiian airport experienced a closure that caused every airline to have long delays. Following the passage of the storm, we have done our best to ensure that all our valued customers have been able to get to their destination on their day of travel. 

We have spent thousands of dollars to buy Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest tickets for some of our Kona and Hilo passengers, and we have provided ground shuttled to and from Kahului for many of our Kapalua passengers. These actions allowed us to prioritize aircraft to Molokai and Lanai, where Southwest and Hawaiian are unable to fly. Our goal is to make sure that every resident is able to fly off-island in critical times. 

To all of you who have been inconvenienced, we thank you for your patience and ask for your understanding. Please know that all our team, both here and on the mainland, worked around the clock for nine nights repairing aircraft, manning stations for late arrivals, answering phone calls from displaced passengers, scheduling extra aircraft and reaccommodating customers from cancelled flights. 

Throughout this crisis, Mokulele continued to fly over 85 percent of our schedule. But if you were in the 15 percent that got cancelled, that statistic doesn’t help. We understand this, and it always pains us to cancel a flight. Within 60 days, we’re going to expand from 14 planes to 17 planes based in Hawaii to ensure that this will never happen again. 

In the meantime, thanks for continuing to fly Mokulele Airlines. You can rest assured that, though we can’t always control what happens, we can control our response to it. You will always be our top priority, even if that means our spending more money than the price of your ticket to get you to your destination. 

All 300 of us in the Mokulele ohana sincerely appreciate your support and continued business. 

Richard Schuman, Executive Vice President

Stan Little, CEO

Mokulele Airlines