Take a random, tiny airline with a handful of prop planes flying the islands of Hawaii and give them a little bit of encouragement and what happens? Something ridiculous like this. Mokulele is a regional operator in Hawaii, flying a few Cessna aircraft on hops within the islands. And now they’re aiming big, really big.
The company has received approval to operate scheduled charter service from Honolulu to Rockford, Illinois and continuing service to London‘s Stansted airport. Of course, they won’t be doing this with their Cessnas. They are chartering a 767-200 aircraft to run the operations. I cannot imagine that it will be a particularly comfortable in-flight experience, nor a particularly cheap one. We are talking about roughly 18-20 hours wedged into a tight, charter seating configuration with minimal amenities.
Still, the lines and the operator have me pining for a chance. Oh, and I’m going to be in Hawaii anyways at the beginning of June thanks to the inaugural Hawaiian Airlines JFK-HNL service, so I’ve got the opportunity.
Now to see just how ridiculous it prices.
Hat tip to the folks at NYC Aviation for sharing the details on this one.
And, as always, thanks to GCMap.com for the cool maps.
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You mentioned, ” tight, charter seating configuration with minimal amenities.” What is the typical charter seat configuration and why would there be minimal amenities? Thanks.
Scott – have you ever flown a charter flight? Not one for professional baseball teams, but ones to Jamaica/Caribbean?
Don’t expect legroom.
No…that’s why I’m asking.
If we’re going on the lines of charter et al, I’d expect an old plane, 30″-31″ seat pitch for long haul. Although charters can REALLY squeeze if they need to and shrink legroom further.
An odd route, but running into STN doesn’t surprise me. The stopover at RFD is an intresting if logical play too (quieter to process international pax, and probably one of the few commerical flights that day with Frontier and another charter outfit).
This is nuts.
Charter service is, generally speaking, very much a no-frills operation. Think RyanAir or Allegiant. And, yes, it is nuts. But so am I. If I can figure out the pricing and it is at all reasonable I am seriously considering doing it.
Definitely a good flight to put the $200 AMEX Platinum travel incidentals credit to use to help pass the time with MOAR! :p
The AmEx benefit only works on real airlines (and only a handful of those even) so I’m going to be stuck buying booze out of my own wallet for that flight. Still worth it. Plus, I know exactly how many alcohol minis I can get in a clear, one quart zipper top bag. 😉
So what subsidy is the airline going to get from the RFD area to operate these flights? RFD has been playing this kind of game before, so not sure why it still wouldn’t be in play in one form or another.