Island Air offers one-way flights for $64

Island Air, looking to jump-start two new routes it recently added to its network, is offering a $64 one-way fare between Honolulu and both Kona and Lihue. The special promotion, which was announced at about 9 a.m. Wednesday and ends today, is good for weekday flights from July 20 through Oct. 6. It ends just before Hawaii’s public schools begin their fall break the week of Oct. 10.

Hawaiian Airlines sent frequent fliers an email at about noon Wednesday with a similar $64 promotion for Honolulu-Lihue flights and a $74 fare for Honolulu-Kona service.

“Interisland travel is such an integral part of summer in Hawaii, and we want to make it a little easier for families to ‘Fly the Island Way,’” David Uchiyama, president and CEO of Island Air, said in a statement.

Island Air resumed flights between Kona and Honolulu on June 14 after ceasing service there in December 2012. The airline’s Lihue-Honolulu service restarted March 15 after a nine-month absence.

Last month Jeffrey Au, whose investor-led group purchased majority ownership of Island Air in February from billionaire Larry Ellison, said the airline doesn’t plan to get into a fare war with Hawaiian.

“That’s not really our strategy,” Au said. “Our strategy is just to price things that make sense for us. We don’t have any interest in any kind of fare war.”

The state’s second-largest carrier offers 238 flights a week by 64-seat ATR-72 aircraft among Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island. As of the end of 2015, Hawaiian had a 91 percent interisland market share and Island Air was far behind at 5 percent, just ahead of Mokulele Airlines’ 4 percent, according to data from the state Department of Transportation.