Carrying passengers from Columbus, OH, to a handful of cities such as Burbank, CA; Richmond, VA; and Kansas City, MO, and St. Augustine Fl., Skybus Airlines is going to be designed in several different ways to improve new and upcoming pilots, so they can take their knowledge to go bigger and better.

Says CEO Justin, “We will have the ability to teach and direct our future pilots to a whole new era of the VA. One way we are going to make this an effective VA is by starting out by doing little things such as short-haul routes, no-frills service, standardized fleet (Airbus 319), Flight Training courses and the use of Teamspeak and VAFS (Virtual Airline Financial Systems Pilot Flight Following Client).”

The A380 is currently offered in the classic livery but will soon be offered with the new Dolphin Prism livery developed for the contemporary airline. This features leaping dolphins in the same colors as the stripe along the side of the aircraft. Routes for the A380 currently include service to Honolulu from Los Angeles and San
Francisco, but in development are flights from Chicago to Honolulu via San Francisco,  Dallas-Ft. Worth to Honolulu via Los Angeles, Tokyo to Honolulu non-stop and Sydney to Honolulu non-stop.

The Hawaii Express (THX) has also made plans to acquire an Airbus A340-313 and the aircraft is currently completing its final checks prior to delivery. The aircraft will feature the Dolphin Prism livery and pictures are available on their website. The A340 will take up the medium density routes, like Atlanta to Honolulu via Los Angeles, Denver to Honolulu via San Francisco, Brisbane to Honolulu non-stop and Nadi/Fiji to Honolulu non-stop.

Scheduled for entry around Christmas 2008, an Airbus around Christmas, an A330-200 will be introduced and will operate non-stops to Honolulu from Faa’a/Tahiti, Anchorage and Seattle. There may be one more flight for this aircraft but the announcement for that will not be forthcoming until after the beginning of December.

The 21st Century version of the airline will not offer service around the islands as the 1983 version does, nor will it offer service to Kona. There is also a chance that the A380 will be dropped after Thanksgiving and the A340-313 will replace it on those routes. “While I like the A380 and it fits this new philosophy of moving people in mass quantities,” says President Peter McKay, “it just it way too expensive to operate on what would normally be considered a ‘short route’ compared to the aircraft’s normal range envelope.”

In a related story, THX President, Peter McKay announced that he would not relaunch Air Fresno, a fictional regional airline based out of Fresno Yosemite International Airport (KFAT). “I cannot concentrate on two virtual airlines,” he said, “and The Hawaii Express has more potential than a small fictional regional airline.” The Air Fresno website will be continue to be hosted for the time being but it will not be updated further, and after the first of the year all of the website pages will be deleted.

Visit their website for more information.

The “new” aircraft being considered are: the CamSim A350-1000 and -900 versions in both passenger and a dedicated cargo configuration; the A350-800; and once the paint kit is released, the A360-200. The group is also considering the A380, but with the limited amount of routes available, this may over saturate the airline with aircraft that simply aren’t needed. The A350 is due for service entry in 2012 but the launch date for the A360, a direct A320 replacement, has not yet been announced.

Also under consideration were the Boeing 787-3, -4, -8 and -9 as well as the 797 but The Hawaii Express felt that the Airbus aircraft would be more suitable to their specific needs.

Upon the release of the new website and aircraft, The Hawaii Express is hoping to boost roster numbers, anticipating an increase of at least 5 pilots. As the pilot group expands, longer routes and additional aircraft would be acquired to keep pace with the demand– applicable to operations in both era’s. Tahiti and other South Pacific islands would be first, then possible more on the mainland.

All these additions are to attract new pilots. Many younger pilots don’t want to fly 30 year old aircraft like the DC-9 and DC-10, The Hawaii Express is hoping that bringing these aircraft into the airline will help bridge the generation gap. The new Airbus aircraft will also have a new The Hawaii Express livery that will be modern but will maintian some of the retro look for identification. Planned for a mid-January through March launch, if the project does not bring in the anticipated number of pilots, then the new aircraft will be withdrawn but all routes and services will be absorbed into the 1983 The Hawaii Express system.