Column: Hawaii’s destructive aviation policies affect jobs, safety

The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) has all but declared war on light-plane aviation. The proposed closing of Dillingham Airfield is just the tip of the iceberg. Kalaeloa Airport’s Hangar 111, once the site of a rapidly growing University of Hawaii pilot degree program, has sat idle since 2015. Its adjacent Hangar 110 has just benefited from millions of dollars of FAA-funded renovations, and now HDOT plans to provide the building to a federal agency unrelated to aviation while turning its back on the previous light-plane tenants.

Rents have soared throughout Oahu’s airports, both on hangars and buildings used by aviation concerns. Hawaii’s only seaplane operation closed after HDOT raised its rent on a small dirt parking lot 400% to $91,000 per year.

Hawaii’s small-plane businesses generate far lower revenues and cannot afford the rents a large jet airline can pay. Nor can they afford hangar rent that is priced to match densely packed warehouse space (the shape of airplanes prevents such efficiencies). The FAA knows this and provides Hawaii airports with many millions of dollars each year to keep aviation affordable, but the connection between this manna from heaven and the need for diverse aviation enterprises appears to have been overlooked by HDOT.

The people of Hawaii understand the concept of an ecosystem. If the ocean’s coral is not healthy it will adversely affect the whole spectrum of aquatic life. Aviation, too, has an ecosystem. In Hawaii, collegiate flight programs must train competent flight instructors for private flight schools because those private schools lack the depth and breadth of experience they once possessed.

Pilots use a stepping- stone approach to gain proficiency in progressively bigger and faster aircraft types. Take away the stepping stones (disrupt the ecosystem) and the system falls apart. Rather than Hawaii’s young people taking great-paying pilot jobs at companies such as Hawaiian Airlines, a higher percentage of those jobs will go to residents of states that possess adequate aviation training and ecosystems.

This is such a shame because all too often Hawaii’s young people must leave the state to achieve a sustainable lifestyle.

Meanwhile, the greatest pilot shortage of modern times is worsening. Mainland regional airlines are canceling destinations because they lack pilots. Flight instructors are scarce. In Hawaii, charter companies, air ambulances and regional airlines will soon feel the squeeze. United Airlines just bought a flight school in Arizona because even the big airlines are becoming concerned about their supply of pilots.

Safety of flight diminishes as aviation companies hire less-experienced or less-attractive pilots due to an anemic pilot supply. The primary reason Honolulu’s FAA office has a hard time policing the state’s aviation activities is because they lack the ability to hold onto a sufficient number of experienced pilot- inspectors to do the job.

Yes, the FAA is part of the aviation ecosystem too. The traveling public needs to understand the long-term implications for their safety that this anti-aviation policy of HDOT is creating.

Gov. Ige, your Hawaii Department of Transportation will not fix these problems because the department lacks the understanding or the will to do so. It sees its job as generating revenues from assets, and lacks the aviation background to see the big picture. It’s up to your office to speak with the aviation community, gain an understanding of the problems, then quickly direct HDOT accordingly. You are in command of this journey. Without your involvement, the state will continue flying deeper into stormy weather. The lack of your reassuring voice on the PA would be deafening.

Peter Forman is an aviation journalist and historian; he is a former airline pilot, flight instructor and aviation educator.