Mesa Buys Aloha Name Rights

Mesa Air Group has settled with the Yucaipa Company, former Aloha Airlines' owners, that would allow Mesa to use the Aloha Airlines brand. The deal comes as part of a measly $2million settlement of the suit Aloha had before its demise, last March.

The Honolulu Advertiser's coverage ...

All I can say, is that Rudy Tongg must be rolling in his grave! And ... a lot of former AQ employees must be upset over these series of events. I knew someone was going to buy the name rights and intellectual property of AQ, but I didn't expect Mesa to do it. For Mesa to do something like that, is like killing a person, then assuming their identity. ‘Auwe!

Ex-Aloha N835AL

N835AL flew from Mojave (KMHV) to San Jose Juan Santamaria International (MROC) in Costa Rica yesterday.

Air China's B-2643

Today's HNL RareBirds Classic goes back to 1999, when Air China took delivery of B-2643 (c/n 29878), a 737-89L. It was part of the first batch of "Next Generation" 737s that CA ordered. As of 2007, B-2643 still has its registration painted on the tail. Later deliveries have their registration painted above the rear passenger windows.

B-2643 is seen above taxiing to Runway 8R on Taxiway RT, headed for MAJ on the next leg of its island hopping delivery flight.

Mokulele Airlines - Day One

Mokulele Airlines (MW/TCF) made its E170 inter-island jet service debut early this morning with flights to KOA and LIH with both N868RW and N869RW flying.

N869RW (msn 17000133), seen above, taxies to Gate 50 as TCF206, arriving from LIH.

I was booked on the next flight to LIH, TCF209 / TCF214, which was the media flight, though the only other media there was a photographer from the Star*Bulletin, and videographer and reporter from KHON2.

Pacific Wings to Georgia Skies

Here's one of Pacific Wings' Cessna 208 Caravans in the new Georgia Skies livery shortly before it left the islands on November 4th, on a ferry flight HNL - OAK - VGT - TUL - AHN. Pacific Wings was awarded an Essential Air Service Contract in June 2008 to provide service between Atlanta-Hartsfield, Macon, and Athens, Georgia.

Virgin Blue E-190 VHZP?

A Virgin Blue Embraer 190 landed at HNL on a cloudy November 17th on its way to Australia. Delivery flights had been staging through LIH, but this one arrived at HNL, met by a platoon of firetrucks. After the uneventful landing about 4:05 PM, the fire crews quickly lost interest. I don't know what kind of problem they had. I also couldn't get a clear view of the registration letters.

The 2nd Mokulele E170 Arrives

The second E170 has arrived from Republic with the registration N869RW. It is parked at Gate 49 right next to N868RW. N869RW arrived on Saturday, Nov 15 as TCF9400 and followed the same route as N868RW. Service between HNL-LIH/KOA will be staring in 3 days (Nov 19).

HA 717-200, N489HA

The next ex-QantasLink 717-26R is now flying with HA. N489HA, Po`ouli, has been in the fleet for a few week now, but only now I was able to take a picture. While flying with QantasLink, this 717 was registered VH-NXB.

It's pretty easy to tell the new additions to the fleet as the tails are not faded. Two added to the fleet, two more to go.

Aloha Air Cargo's N840AL Unveiled

Adhering to a request from Aloha Air Cargo (KH/AAH), here are two shots I got from the official unveiling on October 15th.

N840AL (c/n 23124), a 737-2X6C, was named "Ho‘omaka‘ana Hou" (Hawaiian for "New Beginning") was unveiled to Aloha Air Cargo employees, family, business partners, and the media in a gala presentation set in the KH hangar. The new colors also represents a new corporate identity for the cargo division of the former Aloha Airlines (AQ).

The top photo shows the new livery in its entirety, anf the above photo shows the new tail logo, which may feature different colors on the subsequent re-branding of the other four 737-200Cs in the KH fleet.

ANA 747-200, JA8174

For today's edition of a pre-blog classic, here's a 747-281B from ANA. This aircraft operated as an extra section flight during the end of the New Year's period back in 2005. Here it is parked at Gate 17 in the Centre Concourse instead of the Ewa or Diamond Head Concourses.

ANA retired all their classic 747s in Fiscal Year 2005, with the last flight being in March 2006.

First Republic E170 for Mokulele

The first E170 from Republic arrived in HNL for Mokulele. Registration of this aircraft is N868RW. They flew this aircraft IND-GTF-ANC-ADK-MDY-HNL. Apparently this route was taken because Republic didn't install any ferry tanks. The aircraft is currently parked at Gate 50. As you can see in the picture, the livery looks exactly like the picture on the Mokulele website with the only difference is the addition of the word "Kapalua" below the logo on the tail. The second E170 is also on its way to HNL on the same routing.

Qantas VH-EBU "Nalanji Dreaming"

As we wait for the deliveries from Boeing to begin again, here's another pre-blog rarebird for everyone. In late 2004, Qantas switched their schedule to arrive and depart HNL during the late morning instead of the middle of the night. This was most definately a response to Hawaiian's entry into the Australian market and their daytime flights. It was great to be able to see Qantas' 747-338s during the day.

In December of 2004, VH-EBU paid a visit to HNL. This aircraft featured an Aboriginal art livery and named "Nalanji Dreaming." A few months after visiting HNL, VH-EBU went to Avalon (AVV), Australia for maintenance. However, she never made it back out. She ended up having her lovely livery painted over and parted out.

Canadian Airlines' C-FCRE

Today's edition of HNL RareBirds Classic goes back to 1997, and Canadian Airlines' (CP/CDN) DC-10-30, C-FCRE (msn 47868), which bore the signatures of many Canadian Air employees, and was named "The Spirit of Canadian". It's seen above at Gate 26 between segments of the YVR-HNL-YVR flights.

Sadly, C-FCRE was broken up in 2002 as N305FV in the Arizona desert. It began life as I-DYND for Alitalia (AZ/AZA) in 1975. It also flew with Pakistan International Airlines (PK/PIA) as AP-BBL, then onto VASP (VP/VSP - Brazil) as PP-SON, before going to Canadian Airlines. CP was eventually acquired by Air Canada in 2001.

A CP Air (CP/CPC) 747-217B (c/n 20929) previously was registered C-FCRE. CP Air was the predecessor to Canadian Airlines.

Billabong Grumman SA-16A Albatross, N121FB

To celebrate the ratification of the new IAM contract with Boeing, here's a special rarebird that spent quite a bit of time at HNL. This Grumman SA-16A Albatross arrived in HNL in the middle of December 2005 to start a promotional surf tour sponsored by Billabong and Hawaiian Airlines. This aircraft kept in the maintenance hangar for about a week. It then was moved over to Elliott on Christmas Eve, where I took a special ride out to get this shot.

Billabong got this aircraft to do a special 2 year tour to find the best surf spots around the world. It actually spent a lot of time in HNL before leaving the state. I remember the aircraft still being at HNL, parked by the HCC aviation school on the South Ramp when I went on my trip in May 2006.

Strike At Boeing Ends

Striking Boeing machinists have ratified a new contract, and will return to assembly plants around the country, to resume aircraft assemblies and delveries.

Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F D-ALCB

A couple of years ago, Lufthansa Cargo used to fly a MD-11F between HNL and AKL as part of a codeshare with Air New Zealand. This flight was part of a round-the-world routing that passed through HNL 2 or 3 times a week. The flight usually just stopped over in HNL for a couple of hours before leaving. Here D-ALCB is seen taxiing out for takeoff back on October 31, 2004.