The owner of Mokulele Airlines, which operates four nine-seat turboprops between the Hawaiian Islands, is starting up a new charter service and heading across the big pond to London.

Ron Hansen, chairman and CEO of parent company Mokulele Flight Services Inc., said Tuesday he has received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct weekly nonstop charter flights from Rockford, Ill., to both Honolulu and London. The service will operate under Charter World Solutions, doing business as Mokulele Tours.

"Rockford is looking for service to Honolulu and also to London, and they (Chicago Rockford International Airport commissioners) were willing to subsidize the routes, so we decided to take them up on that opportunity," Hansen said.

The airport is paying Mokulele $1.4 million, or $700,000 a year per route, to fly to Honolulu and London for a year.

"I saw this as a way of maybe feeding our (Hawaii) operations a little bit more, and I’m also taking advantage of a business opportunity with the Rockford Airport," Hansen said. "I’ve been in the charter business for almost 30 years and the airline business for 45 years."

Hansen said that in the 1980s he operated as many as 14 charter flights a week to Hawaii from the mainland.

In Hawaii, Mokulele Airlines operates 45 flights a day on routes that go from Honolulu to both Molokai and Lanai, as well as between Kona, Maui and Molokai.

Mokulele Tours will make its first flight from Rockford to Honolulu on April 13 and its first departure from Honolulu to Rockford on April 15. Rockford-to-London flights will begin May 4, and the first return trip from England is set for May 6.

The airline will use a 218-passenger Boeing 767-200 ER leased from Little Rock, Ark.-based Air Transport International, which will provide the crew. Online reservations will be available later this week.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Transpac Aviation, where Hansen is CEO, acquired the nine-seat turboprops in November from Mesa Air Group Inc., which owns interisland carrier go!