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There’s no such thing as a $1 interisland airfare anymore.
Interisland airfares have been on the rise since those days in June 2006 when go! entered the Hawaii market with a $19 one-way fare and then dropped the price to $1 a year later to mark its first anniversary.
After average one-way fares plunged to $46 during the heights of the airfare war, they rose to an average of $86 in 2011, according to Chris Kam, senior director, market insights, of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.
Today the lowest one-way fare — not to be confused with the average fare — is $69.
Average airfare for 2012 is not yet available, according to Kam.
The average one-way fare ranged from $41.24 for Honolulu-Molokai to $120.74 for Kahului-Lihue.
From Honolulu the average one-way fares to the largest neighbor island cities were $83.26 to Lihue, $83.28 to Kahului, $88.64 to Hilo and $90.47 to Kona.
Hawaiian Airlines also has expanded, as expected, its interisland market share to 82 percent since the shutdown of Aloha Airlines on March 31, 2008. Before Aloha’s demise, Hawaiian had 47 percent and Aloha 36 percent in 2007.
The data are based on scheduled interisland seats for the first half of 2012, Kam said.
Among other carriers, go!Mokulele has 10 percent of the interisland market today, while Island Air has 6 percent. The remaining 2 percent is made up of smaller carriers.
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