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Long delay for travelers scheduled to go to Honolulu last Monday night

fili@samoanews.com

After two full days of waiting in frustration, passengers from Monday night’s flight finally left for Honolulu on Wednesday night’s flight — one of the three extra flights the airline scheduled between Honolulu and Pago Pago for the busy holiday season.

Some passengers as well as family members voiced their complaints and disbelief with Samoa News for the long wait, despite being told — via Samoa News stories — about why the flight was delayed — according to the airline, it was over an important issue re the safety of passengers.

The Monday flight returning to Honolulu was originally delayed until 1:35p.m. the next day due to an issue with an indicator light involving the air conditioning system. Passengers then re-boarded Tuesday afternoon, however, the light came back on and passengers were again deplaned.

After the matter couldn’t be addressed immediately, the flight was then officially canceled while a part was flown in on the Wednesday night flight, which arrived on time. Hawaiian had initially offered $300 voucher credits but increased that amount to $500 when the flight was canceled, according to airline officials.

Hawaiian spokesperson Ann Botticelli told Samoa News yesterday that the airline had accommodated “all passengers” from Monday’s flight on the Wednesday flight back to Honolulu. “Light Wednesday and Monday [passenger] loads enabled us to do that,” she said from Honolulu.

Botticelli reiterated that the issue with Monday flight was an indicator light in the left-side air conditioner.

“If it does not illuminate we do not operate the flight. We thought that we had addressed it, but when we loaded the flight again, it did not illuminate again, so we made plans to fly everyone out on Wednesday’s flight,” she said.

She also confirmed that the part for the aircraft from Monday night, was flown in on the Wednesday flight with repairs carried out thereafter. And that aircraft was ferried back to Honolulu early yesterday morning.

Last week, the airline had two delays — on Monday due to weather conditions and Wednesday due to a fuel indicator light.