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Aloha Air Cargo seeks removal of regulatory limits on expansion
来源：shippingazette 编辑：编辑部 发布：2023/02/17 13:52:02
The Hawaiian airline claims such restrictions inhibits its ability to grow and help the US Postal Service overcome mail delivery backlogs.
High mail demand exceeds Aloha Air's current capacity, resulting in transit delays. The Postal Service has asked Aloha Air Cargo to begin transporting mail from Honolulu to both Maui and Hilo and could be forced to use slower boats because of the capacity shortage, the airline said in a petition last week.
But the US Postal Service, responding to FreightWaves' queries, said it doesn't need more airlift capacity to move mail to outer islands in Hawaii and that use of boats for non-preferential mail has been a long-standing practice.
"To improve delivery times, specifically in the morning, USPS solicited Aloha Air Cargo in November 2022 and awarded them a contract to transport mail to Kahului and Hilo in the AM through August 2023," said Duke Gonzales, a spokesman for the Hawaii district.
The DOT imposed conditions on Aloha Air Cargo's operating authority in 2008 when Seattle-based transportation conglomerate Saltchuk Holdings acquired the cargo assets of bankrupt Aloha Airlines, which went out of business.
Federal transportation regulators required Aloha Air Cargo to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Saltchuk and that it be limited to five aircraft.
Aloha Air Cargo is currently the only large jet operator transporting mail between the Hawaiian Islands for the US Postal Service after the Federal Aviation Administration suspended the operating licence of Transair following a July 2021 crash.
Aloha flies a mix of Boeing 737-300 and -400 converted freighters, plus charters a 767 operated by sister carrier Northern Air Cargo between Honolulu and Los Angeles.