Molokaʻi boat owners Deserae Naeole and Ikaika Lester braved Thursday's stormy weather to take a pregnant woman across the channel to Maui for her medical appointment. That’s because Mokulele Airlines canceled her flight.
Taking a fishing boat to the doctor's has become commonplace for Molokaʻi families in recent weeks.
“Yeah, we just make it work. We gotta make it work,” Naeole said.
Mokulele Airlines, the only air carrier to serve Molokaʻi, faced a week-long operations shutdown for maintenance earlier this month. Cancellations have continued and the airline is not yet back to full capacity.
Naeole and her husband are among many local boaters who have stepped up to help their community get to Maui or Oʻahu.
“It's been really stressful, honestly, but you know, helping out people is worth the stress,” Naeole said. “If we can be a little help in their journey, then we will be, you know, it's nice to be a part of it.”
Despite running a business and being busy parents, Naeole and Lester did two to three boat runs a day to Maui during the airline shutdown. And they said they'll continue to help as long as there's a need.
“We, as Molokaʻi people, we don't always see eye to eye, or we don't have the same beliefs. But when people are in need, we all come together, and it just shows how we are, how Molokaʻi people are,” she said.
Lori-Lei Rawlins-Crivello is also from Molokaʻi but now spends most of her time on Oʻahu because of her son's medical needs.
Earlier this week, family members needed to get their 1-year-old baby to Oʻahu for medical treatments in preparation for a kidney transplant. They had to cancel his original appointment when Mokulele grounded flights.
“Yesterday, they got canceled again,” Rawlins-Crivello said Wednesday, “and we were under the understanding that possibly, with some of the flights that they are flying, they would accommodate those with medical needs as a priority.”
Rawlins-Crivello said that despite the baby's mother calling Mokulele and explaining the situation, no flights were available. So the family put their boat in at Kaunakakai Wharf and crossed the dangerous winter swells of the Kaiwi Channel to make it to the baby’s treatment.
“The fear is that we have patients already sick, having to endure these conditions,” Rawlins-Crivello said. “That's just to go and get treatments, just to go see specialists on Oʻahu — and that's so unacceptable for essential medical needs. We gotta have some kind of alternate alternatives for our families.”
With the boat trip between Molokaʻi and Oʻahu averaging three to four hours, the family didn't get home until after dark.
“This is crazy. I mean, we are in what century? And still having to go by boat from one island to the other, because we don't have air carrier that can take you to the next island, and for such matters as medical services,” Rawlins-Crivello told HPR.
Exploring solutions
Molokaʻi resident Tylor Tanaka is spearheading a survey to gather information and transportation experiences of residents to share with federal officials to raise awareness of the community’s challenges and help find solutions.
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said she is also addressing this “complicated and challenging issue that will require collaboration between state, federal, and private stakeholders.”
"Air transportation is a critical lifeline for our ʻohana on Moloka’i and Lānaʻi,” Tokuda said in a statement on Jan. 24. “In the week since Mokulele grounded their planes without warning, leaving passengers and residents angry and stranded, I have been in conversation with multiple federal agencies about any and all remedies we have to prevent these lapses in service and explore alternative options to keep our neighbor island communities connected.”
The company holds several federal Essential Air Service contracts in Hawaiʻi. A U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson told HPR it is currently reviewing Mokulele’s compliance with its EAS obligations.
“The Department is monitoring the situation closely and has reminded the air carrier of its obligations to provide reliable and safe EAS to the affected communities,” according to a USDOT statement provided to HPR.
The airline's EAS to Lānaʻi, awarded this past summer, requires the company to file regular reports on its on-time performance to the USDOT, though that information is not available to the public.
If any EAS carrier cannot meet the terms of its contract, the USDOT said it may “terminate the contract and initiate a new air carrier selection process to secure a reliable operator for the community.”
In the meantime, Maui County is weighing the purchase of the Lānaʻi ferry to operate it as publicly funded transportation. A feasibility study is expected to be completed next month, said Gabe Johnson, the Maui County councilmember for Lānaʻi.
“The important thing about why it's so good for the county to own a ferry is because that accesses us to federal funds,” he said.
The purchase of a ferry for service between Molokaʻi and Maui is being considered for the future, when the Lahaina harbor is rebuilt after the 2023 wildfires.
Johnson said the plan would help keep prices reasonable.
“That's why I'm a big advocate of the county owning the ferry, because we'd be service-driven and not profit-driven,” he said.
In the meantime, rural residents will continue to rely on fishing boats when all else fails.
Mokulele Airlines did not respond to requests from HPR for information on when full operations will resume.
