Airline to Start Late-Night Honolulu-to-Maui Flights

Newport Beach-based Maui Airlines plans to start regular late-night passenger service between Honolulu and Maui on Friday, despite an ongoing legal battle over who owns the airline’s business plan.

Robert C.K. Lee, Maui Airlines’ president, said the airline would offer five round-trip flights daily between 7:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. for passengers arriving in Honolulu late at night. Lee said that about 700 to 1,000 passengers fly into Honolulu each night on their way to Maui and don’t want to stay overnight in Honolulu.

Maui Airlines received Federal Aviation Administration certification on Jan. 22, just six days after an Orange County Superior Court judge lifted a temporary restraining order against the airline.

However, the suit against Lee and Maui Airlines is still pending. It was filed last December by Carl Strombitski, a former flight instructor who says he was ousted by the airline’s investors after he developed the business and marketing plans for the company.

The airline’s officials have denied Strombitski’s claims to the company.

Maui Airlines’ fare, $64.95 one way, is almost twice as high as the fares charged by competitors on daytime routes. But Lee said the price, which reflects higher costs of late-night service, is still attractive because the passengers are avoiding the costs of staying in Honolulu.

Maui’s late-night flight plans were met with skepticism by airline and tourism officials in Hawaii. “I don’t quite understand why they are flying during the middle of the night,” said Keith Haugen, a spokesman for Mid Pacific Airlines, a Honolulu-based regional air carrier.

Could Make Connection

Haugen said Mid Pacific’s last flight each evening from Honolulu to Maui, at 7:55 p.m., is in time for passengers coming in on the latest overseas flights. He said he was not aware of any other airline flying the late-night hours Maui has chosen, adding, “Maybe a few passengers might make it (Maui) a paying proposition.”

Frank Blackwell, executive director of the Maui County Visitors Bureau, said, “Night flights don’t make sense to me.” Most passengers who come into Honolulu have it planned to stay overnight or two or three days, he said, because “they are tired when they first arrive,” especially those coming from the Midwest, which is a seven- to eight-hour flight.

Strombitski said the late-night flying schedule was “a poor decision” and called it a ploy by airline officials “to give an allusion that it is not the same entity that I created.”