Hawaiian Airlines has announced that they will be dramatically increasing its service to the Maui in 2012 and will actually create a major airline hub on the Valley Isle. In their press release, Hawaiian Airlines stated that they will add between 23 to 25 per day to Maui, including additional nonstop service from the island to the Big Island and Kauai. President and CEO of Hawaiian, Mark Dunkerley, stated, "Hopefully, this will make everyone in the islands happy. This clearly brings greater focus on Maui, helps us build flights on Maui and gets us well situated to compete on Maui. For other neighbor islands, it gives them connectivity to Maui. It gives the other neighbor islands the ability to do a round trip without connecting in Honolulu, and it means a great deal for them."
Dunkerley noted that they will be hiring new employees for the Maui airport, but stated that the company was still "working through the numbers". Dunkerley added, "Clearly, with an enormous investment like the one we announced today, what we want to see if it is financially successful and lead to further investments. Our medium- and long-term view is if we can get the right airport facility to operate efficiently on Maui, if we fill our airplanes and if we can operate our services on a financially viable basis, we'll be eager to see additional flights to Maui."
