GREAT EATS HAWAII: ISLAND AIR

ISLAND AIR
OAHU TO KAUAI

ISLAND AIR

1-800-652-6541 RESERVATIONS

www.islandair.com

I love to fly Hawaiian Airlines but lately have been loving Island Air. The reasons why I love Island Air are as follows; (1) they depart from the Inter Island Terminal that is uncrowded. (2) Parking is easy and right in front of terminal. (3) Security is a breeze and only takes a few minutes. (4) boarding takes only a few minutes as there are not that many passengers. (5) when you arrive at your destination, your bags are ready in minutes. Island Air is just more convenient and much faster than flying the large Hawaiian Airlines jets. Hawaiian has announced however that they will begin routes to the smaller airports like Kapalua, Lanai and Molokai via smaller prop jets like Island Air. This will really heat up competition between the two carriers and hopefully bring down prices and improve service. With Oracle Billionaire Larry Ellison now owning Island Air, this should be a fierce competition where the customers finally win. Our flight to Lihue, Kauai was a quick 30 minutes including taxi time on each runway. We had only carry on bags so we were off to our rental car right after landing on Kauai. Really hope that Island Air survives and flourishes when Hawaiian Air's new planes arrive to compete on the same destinations. We really need competition as a one-way ticket from Oahu to Kauai and cast over $100 at times.
UPDATE: What I don't like about Island Air. The new ATR 72 planes take longer to load passengers. There are no covered ramps when boarding. This means that if it is raining, you will walk across the tarmac in the rain and stand in the rain while the plane boards. Flight was over one hour late. Not always on time like Hawaiian Air.