Aloha's downfall may help Superferry

Honolulu Star-Bulletin ^ | April 5, 2008 | Jennifer Sudick

[Proud2BAmerican]

Aloha’s downfall may help Superferry survive

The demise of Aloha Airlines gives the vessel a bigger role in the travel industry

Timing may be everything for the Hawaii Superferry.

With the shutdown of Aloha Airlines' passenger operations Monday and improving spring weather conditions, the Alakai will be better positioned to stay in operation after it resumes its Oahu-Maui service on Monday, the company's top executive and industry experts say.

The 866-passenger vessel will sail more than two weeks ahead of schedule, after nearly two months of maintenance and repair work. The Superferry has been plagued by legal delays and high seas since it launched for less than a week in late August before shutting down until December.

"I think what Hawaii has experienced over the last two years since the entry of go! was an environment which really wasn't envisioned when we put our business plan together back in the 2003-2004 period," said John Garibaldi, the Superferry's president and chief executive. "From our business model, it's getting back to an environment to which we think this market would basically settle out at."

Garibaldi said he expects passenger levels -- at 4,944 in December and 6,895 in January, according to state Department of Transportation data -- to meet its projected break-even average of 400 a trip. The ferry will run one daily round trip to Maui, with a second daily voyage planned later this spring. It has yet to set a date when service will resume to Kauai.

The Superferry, which normally employs as many as 220 workers, has been operating with half that since the 349-foot Alakai entered drydock to make permanent repairs related to the ship's auxiliary rudders on Feb. 13.

David Bess, a professor at the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration, said he expects interisland airline rates to increase with the absence of Aloha, allowing the Superferry's rates, currently set at $39 one way for passengers and $55 for vehicles through June 5, to be more competitive.

Regular rates had been set at as much as $62 per adult during peak travel and $69 per car before the ferry started service, while an interisland fare war pushed one-way plane tickets to as low as $1.

Bess, who has also worked for Hawaii Tug and Barge Company Ltd., said the Superferry's freight service may also benefit from uncertainty over the fate of Aloha's cargo unit, which transports 85 percent of the state's air cargo.

"If I were shipping freight on Aloha right now I would be looking for alternatives just to make sure that I can still get my freight into the market," he said. "With a daily scheduled and reliable Superferry service that would take away some of that cargo from the airlines, depending on the rates."

Henry Marcus, a professor of marine systems in the Center for Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who also has taught at the University of Hawaii, said the planned addition of a second vessel early next year for service to the Big Island will help ease concerns over reliability.

"Going from zero service to a reliable, frequent service is just a very painful transition here," he said. "When the day comes that they have at least two vessels and they are both relatively reliable even when one fails, you have the other one so people won't get stuck on an island indefinitely."

The company's second vessel is scheduled to begin Big Island service in early 2009. Garibaldi said he doesn't expect the Alakai to be out of service this year more than his initial estimates of less than two weeks.

"This was an exceptional year as you look over the last decade of weather patterns," he said. "Going into spring and summer and fall I'm not concerned at all about us operating."

[tubebender]

Help is on the way...

[ArmstedFragg]

Any idea which side of Maui the ferry goes to? If they’re on the west side, they’d have a passenger advantage, but I’m not sure about freight handling capability over there. If they’re going to Wailuku, they’ll have freight handling, but not much in the way of tourist amenities.

[ArmstedFragg]

Got my answer: Kahului, not far from the main airport. So, essentially, their advantage will be that you can take your car along. Good for the locals, anyway.

[Proud2BAmerican]

That's all fine and good from late spring until summer -- but when winter swells start rolling in here, watch out. Even big ships have difficulty navigating some of the channels in the islands.

One of the superferries recently came out of dry-dock --- "no comment" on the reasons for it, but some suspect it was because it had a hard time handling some of the swells, and others think it may have been due to a whale collision the SF wants to keep quiet.

I don't think the Superferry's long-term plan has ever been to establish a successful, permanent transport system in the islands.

Here's my suspicion: It's an audition for a military contract. Nearly every legislator has fallen over themselves trying to woo the Superferry here -- terminal improvements, tax breaks, I think even loan guarantees.

I think the Superferry will slug along for awhile, continuing to lose money because it's just not a viable business model, but in the end they'll say "Well, we tried, sorry it didn't work, aloha" and pull out of the Hawaiian waters once they've secured a military contract.

[ArmstedFragg]

That makes sense. I was scratching my head at the one-trip, 6:30 am schedule. Some of the Channel Ferries do a pretty good business in transporting cars that tourists have rented in England, then driven (without approval) over to Ireland. Maybe they’ll do some business in returning rental cars to Maui. There you go... create the problem, then provide the solution, the perfect business model.

[fish hawk]

No help for me, I get sea sick just looking at the ocean let alone getting on board.

[Myrddin]

My first trip to Hawaii was on a Navy ship at the age of 4. I turned 5 during the trip. Two years later, the trip from Honolulu to San Diego was on a Boeing 707. The trip on the ship was preceded by a train ride from San Diego to San Francisco, then a bus ride to the pier where the ship was berthed.

It makes me wonder whether travel by ship is still a viable alternative to hopping a flight to Hawaii. I think the trip was about 5 days from San Francisco, but that is only a guess as I wasn't in the habit of checking calendars at age 4.