Maui OGG to Kona KOA via Cessna

When we went to Hawai’i this year we decided to visit another Hawai’ian Island. The last time (two years ago) we went to Kona on the Big Island so after a bit of internet surfing we picked Maui. We had heard so much about the beaches and the road to Hana so it was off to consult with our travel advisor. She managed to book direct flights to and from. We would land in Maui first (direct flight from Vancouver), spend a few days there, then make our way to Kona, spend a few days and take a direct flight back home to Vancouver. In between we were our own travel agent, I was booking our accommodations on-line trying to find condos with oceanfront views, booking our rental cars (both locations) and then we had to find a way to get from Maui (OGG) to Kona (KOA).



It would have been so easy to just book with Hawai’ian Air or Island Air but with a sense of adventure I decided to take the local commuter flight using Go ! Mokulele Airlines and travel on their Cessna TurboProp 9 passenger commuter plane. We thought that we were on an adventure. Because they use little planes, everything had to be weighed before we loaded. We had to put our bags on the scale, our backpack, and then ourselves with our weights being tallied on the passenger manifest. To avoid embarrassments they weighed each of us as we carried our carry on luggage/backpacks. The plane also had to be loaded by weight priority to balance the planes centre of gravity. The flight captain looked at the manifest and decided our seat positions which were assigned as we walked out on the tarmac towards our waiting plane.


WOW, flights were grounded in December, 2011

We looked upon this alternative as an adventure and luckily everything went as planned and we left and arrived in Kona on time. Now that I am preparing this post I find that we are probably one of the few who have had a good experiences. I did a google review of Mokulele and they are all horrible. Bad customer service, cancelled flights and then I find out that their planes were recently grounded due to parts or possibly maintenance problems.



Then there is this political mess of Mesa Airlines and their takeover of Aloha Airlines and the messy aftermath which has the locals avoiding them like the plague, and also their Bankruptcy earlier this year until they found a new investor to bail them out.


Remember what that white plane with red lettering looks like

Looking back and knowing what I know now, It was a REAL ADVENTURE the magnitude of which, we were largely unaware. I am glad the flight was uneventful and all went well and we arrived unscathed and will live to breathe another day.

Hop aboard and join us on this Uneventful Flight. I hope it has all of its nuts and bolts this time



Mrs Skoot still thinks that we were being adventurous, I mean . . . ignorance is bliss