The arrival of Island Air Flight 109 from Honolulu was met with great ceremony this morning at the Lihue airport.
The inaugural flight of the airline’s resumption of service to Kauai began with a blessing of the Lihue Airport’s Island Air facilites conducted by Kahu Kelekona Bishaw of The Kamehameha Schools Chapel. The ceremony was also extended to the first two passengers leaving Lihue for Honololu on Flight 110.
The arrival of Flight 109 commemorated the return of interisland air service to Kauai and celebrated with a gateside lei greeting of the 45 passengers aboard the flight with hula, music, and greetings from the Lihue Airport crew.
Island Air will commence service with six daily round-trip flights between Honolulu and Lihue with connections to Kahului, Maui using 64-seat ATR-72 aircraft.
Additionally, Island Air recently hired more than 30 individuals, including 19 for the Lihue station.
Island Air announced that in February, it completed 99.9 percent of its 670 scheduled flights with one cancellation. Its flights arrived 87.6 percent on time (arriving within 14 minutes of its scheduled arrival time).
Flight 109 was scheduled to arrive at 7:02, and like the sun rising regularly, the plane idled to the special adapted jetway just a few ticks past 7 a.m.