Making a Profit in Paradise
Flight CS957, the island hopper takes off from Honolulu International airport once a week on a 3,800 mile trip to Agana which is in the United States territory of Guam in the northern Marianas islands. This flight takes over fourteen hours.The aircraft used is a Boeing 737-800 that belongs to Continental's air Micronesia operation which is known as Air Mike.
There is a fifteen hour workday for it's crew and there are 3 crew in the actual flight deck. The extra crew member is needed to provide breaks to the other two. This is because of the very long duty time onboard.
The aircraft also carries its own ground engineer which reduces the risk of delay on some of the more remote locations.
There is a lot of skill needed to pilot the aircraft on the short runways that the 737 has to navigate, a real test for any pilot. Some of these runways are actually shorter than the islands themselves, some of which reach out into the ocean and sit on coral reefs. Pilots have to land the aircraft hard and quick with lots of reverse thrust or they will run out of runway very fast!
The large area covered by Air Mike in Micronesia may be hard to understand. With a population of over 100,000 spread over 2,100 islands, the island hopper covers over 3 million square miles of ocean.
The most amazing thing about the Air Mike operation is that it still remains profitable. Continental do not have monopoly in the area it is just that all other newcomers have found it difficult to survive in this harsh region. The island hopper has also been utilized to extricate folk in times of hurricanes and typhoons.
You don't need to take the island hopper to visit some great long haul destinations though, try www.flightsdirect.com for information on some great locations.
Times are looking good for the island hopper. Air Mike is still a completely separate company but it is still being marketed under the Continental brand.
About the Author
I am reasonably new to the travel industry though find the subject very interesting. I am sure that I can bring something new to the table from the other industries I have worked in. See an example of the type of site I am working on now at: http://www.barheadtravel.co.uk