The first day of operations for go! Mokulele airlines was turbulent for some passengers today as the new interisland carrier tried its best to accommodate roughly 1,000 people who were scheduled to fly Mokulele Airlines before the merger with go! was announced Tuesday.

go! Mokulele reported mostly minor delays largely for passengers who couldn’t be reached to advise them of flight changes, though a couple of travelers reported waiting two hours for their flights despite trying to confirm their trips in advance.
“It’s the very first day of transition,” said Paul Skellon, vice president of go! who is helping lead the new combined airline. “That was going to be a little inevitable on the first day.”
Part of the difficulty in accommodating passengers who had booked Mokulele tickets was that Mokulele by law couldn’t share passenger information with go! until the merger agreement was signed. That left the two airlines a little more than a day to integrate passenger lists for fewer flights because three Mokulele jets were removed from service.
The new airline tried to compensate by squeezing in five more round trips yesterday using go!’s fleet, but Skellon said transfering passenger information from Mokulele’s system couldn’t be automated, so some Mokulele customers had to be confirmed manually, which took extra time in some cases.
Overall, Skellon said only a small number of the estimated 1,000 Mokulele customers who flew the merged airline yesterday faced a major delay, and for that he apologized and asked travelers to bear with the new venture.
Airport signs have been changed directing travelers to go! Mokulele, though some travelers and transportation drivers by habit were arriving at Mokulele’s old terminal in Honolulu next to Hawaiian Airlines instead of the old commuter terminal where go! stations have been converted to go! Mokulele.
Skellon yesterday afternoon said that based on the day’s events he didn’t anticipate that any passengers with travel scheduled yesterday would be unable to fly yesterday, adding that every effort would be made to accommodate someone facing that situation on another carrier.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.