Here today, gone to Maui.

That’s not an advertising slogan for Hawaii’s charter airline industry, but many people were surprised by how quick and easy it was for Randall Saito, a killer and Hawaii State Hospital ward, to skip out of the Kaneohe institution Sunday and fly to Maui on a charter flight on an initial leg of an escape to California.

By and large, local charter flights don’t have anywhere near the same security protocols as commercial passenger flights. At the same time though, charter aviation in Hawaii hasn’t been raised as a travel security issue by law enforcement.

“We are basically a taxicab waiting at the airport standing by for a call and off we go,” said Richard Schuman, president of Makani Kai Air, a charter service provider not involved in Saito’s getaway.

Schuman and other charter operators said their businesses aren’t typically sought out as vehicles for illicit acts because of the cost of the service and because criminals or fugitives may be identified by the charter operator and reported to authorities.

Still, it’s not hard for a fugitive — as Saito demonstrated — to fly charter between islands if they’re willing to pay the fare that can be around $2,000 or more.

Saito chartered a flight on Royal Pacific Air, and used an “alias” according to a spokesman for that company. However, some charter operators don’t require or even ask for identification.

Kent Comstock, acting business manager for Pacific Air Charters, said his company doesn’t ask for a customer’s ID but does require credit card and contact information.

Had someone requested to pay cash for a ticket to Maui, which is what Saito is reported to have done, Comstock said that would have raised a red flag.

“If this guy Saito showed up, I might have refused service to the guy,” Comstock said.

Makani Kai doesn’t ask for ID either, but neither do large commercial passenger carriers. The identification requirement is the purview of the federal Transportation Security Administration and is aimed at preventing suspected terrorists and other dangerous individuals from causing harm to large numbers of people.

Because charter airlines in Honolulu don’t operate out of passenger terminals at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, there is no TSA security. TSA does require some charter airlines to carry out the federal security checks, but only for flights using planes over 12,500 pounds, which is heavier than aircraft interisland charter operators use.

Schuman said a terrorist chartering and then commandeering one of his planes to inflict mass casualties isn’t considered a significant risk because charter pilots faced with being forced to kill many others or being killed by a terrorist are not likely going to choose the former.

“We’re not screening for that possibility,” he said.

Some Hawaii charter operators said law enforcement doesn’t typically send them bulletins for wanted persons. Michelle Yu, a Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman, declined to say whether HPD has concerns about use of charter flights by fugitives, terrorists or others.

In Saito’s case, that wouldn’t have mattered because state hospital officials notified law enforcement close to 10 hours after Saito fled the hospital. By that time, Saito was already in California. And he reportedly used a fake ID to pass TSA security on Maui and catch a Hawaiian Airlines flight to San Jose, Calif.

Going to Maui first could have been an attempt to avoid any authorities on alert on Oahu. Charter flights to the mainland also are available out of Honolulu, but are really expensive ($62,424 to San Jose round-trip) on Pinnacle Aviation, which administers TSA checks.

Most customers for charter flights are business executives, wealthy vacationers, celebrities, bands, teams and travelers who are in a bind to get somewhere at a time when commercial flights aren’t available.

Schuman said his company looks for red flags by asking customers not only where they want to go and when, but also why. That, he said, can alert workers to something that might not be right and prompt them to refuse the business if someone is willing to pay $2,000, $3,000 or more to get to a neighbor island when commercial flights are departing every 40 minutes or so.

“Something’s wrong when you’re willing to pay $2,800 instead of $125 on Hawaiian,” he said.