The Hawaii Express was an innovator in the Hawaiian inter-island market maintaining two version of its operations– a historically accurate rendition and a contemporary adaptation, both proudly displaying the spirit of The Hawaii Express name.

McKay will take this opportunity to refocus his efforts to revive and relaunch the popular Air Fresno brand name alongside his daughter, Sarah. “Using our tried and true Raytheon/Beech 1900D fleet, and some of the more popular routes,” said the elder McKay, “[Air Fresno] airline is now back in operation with a slim schedule for now.”  Interested pilots can visit Air Fresno’s new website at: www.airfresno.com. Pilots for now-defunct The Hawaii Express wishing to transfer over to the new airline are asked to contact: airfresno@gmail.com for LOA requests or more information. McKay closed his last The Hawaii Express press release saying, “I look forward to returning operations to Air Fresno as we close out our 10th year since it’s creation. I hope to see all of you as well.”

Everyone at VAFlash.com sends our best wishes to everyone at The Hawaii Express and we wish Air Fresno and its newly revitalized management team the very best.

Me ka `oia`i`o aloha ‘oe a hui hou.

In related news, THX also announced it will slow expansion of its contemporary division due to lack of acceptance of the new branch. “Things have been very slow here in the way of PiReps” reports THX, but they hope recent drives to boost membership numbers will soon be realized.

The Hawaii-based company curently hosts both a classic and contemporary edition of its operations, allowing members to explore the historical and fictional variations of the airline.

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.

While 100 hours may not seem like much, especially when logged over a month and a half, take into account that the airline only has half a dozen active pilots. “I think this is actually a pretty important event” John later stated in an email to the airlines CEO, “I’m happy the first milestone has my name on it”. Later that evening John returned to Honolulu and logged his 10th flight with the airline, fulfilling another milestone.

Over the last month The Hawaii Express has been shifting some of it’s service focus away from the sightseeing service with the Douglas DC-3 and more towards the shorter DC-9 flights around the islands. The bread-and-butter for the airline remains the service from the mainland with a small fleet of DC-10-10′s, and more flights from mainland destinations are being developed. 

Recruiting efforts for the airline have been slow and for the most part unfulfilled, mainly because the focus has been on developing attractive routes and fleet. However the airline is putting together a recruitment package that will be released sometime in November.