• Expect high airfares if you live on an island • Manager system has many benefits Expect high airfares if you live on an island Hawaiian Airlines is just another corporation that happens to operate an airline. The American public demanded quite
• Expect high airfares if you live on an island • Manager system has many benefits
Expect high airfares if you live on an island
Hawaiian Airlines is just another corporation that happens to operate an airline. The American public demanded quite a few years ago that the airlines be deregulated as to pricing and routes. They aren’t in the business of hospitality in spite of what their advertisements might say.
It’s expensive to service those interisland routes. Aloha going out of business made that point quite clear. All airlines now have revenue requirements departments that fine tune fares and yields. They also have sophisticated marketing departments. There is absolutely nothing any politician can do to change this, unless Congress and the White House want to reregulate the airline industry. That is not about to happen, though.
Keep in mind that Hawaiian Airlines is in an aggressive expansion mode. All those Air Bus 330s on order cost a whole lot of money. So, chock up today’s high fares from Kauai to Oahu as another large cost for choosing to live in the most expensive place in the U.S.
Short of the state of Hawaii operating a government airline for the locals to have low interisland fares (at huge cost to the state’s taxpayers) circumstances will remain as they are.
Wally Roberts, San Clemente, California
Manager system has many benefits
In her difficulty to understand letter to the Forum, Mizdebs De Silva Darveiro (TGI, 11-6-15) claims that the mayor and the council that we elect have an agenda and would, if we had a county manager, control the whole island with no one to veto them.
Where does one start to analyze such a claim? Under the council-manager system being considered by our council we could continue to elect a mayor who would become part of the council and the remainder of the council. A person experienced in management of community affairs would be appointed to oversee the county departments over which the mayor now has supervision.
We have on Kauai, as well as elsewhere in our country, a representative form. Our people do not control directly what government does — that is entrusted to the people we elect. If we don’t like what or representatives do, we elect different representatives.
Ms. Darveiro also seems to think the people can veto our elected officials. At present, only the mayor has a veto power, and its use is limited to trying to block ordinances. He has no power over the council members individually. It remains unresolved whether the mayoral veto power continue under the council-manager system.
Perhaps Ms. Darveiro should learn more about the proposals being considered. She might come to appreciate that vetoes are rarities but the numerous advantages of a council-manager system for us on Kauai are continuous.
Joe Rosa, Lihue
