Big player in small airline market

Hawaiian Airlines plans to begin operating propeller-driven aircraft that should increase its share of flights to smaller interisland airports at lower prices.

The airline plans to acquire three to six turboprop carriers to fly to and from smaller airports where Hawaiian doesn’t land now. That could increase competition with go!, Island Air, Mokulele and Pacific Wings — as long as they are able to withstand the big airline entering their venue.

"We’re just a little dinky operation," said Mokulele CEO Ron Hansen, but Hawaii airline historian Peter Forman says the small frys should be able to compete and survive. Time will tell.

City services getting modern, at last

Slowly but surely, there are hopeful signs that city government services are entering the 21st century.

Architects, planners or simply residents soon may be able to connect via Internet to upload their plans to the city Departmnt of Planning and Permitting for approval, instead of appearing physically at the department with plans in hand and waiting for hours.

The program, called ePlans, has been tested by a few architectural firms in recent weeks. David Tanoue, the department’s director, says the system needs to be tried out with additional applicants before it can be proven to accept as many as the 22,000 permits it approves in a year. If all goes well, the system would go islandwide in September. More information is available by email at info@honolulu-dpp.org.