anything but essential travel does not go to maui. we ll welcome visitors back to paradise after the fire is done. all right, pete muntean is with us now. pete, give us a sense of the travel situation there. reporter: you know, the real challenge now, john, is getting people off the island and evacuated. the airport is the main airport on maui. it s about 15 miles from luhina, and it is really the epicenter right now. airlines are adding flights. this is the latest from hawaii airlines. they added four flights today after adding nine flights yesterday. in some cases, airlines are doing something called upgauging, meaning swapping out smaller planes that would typically be on a route with larger planes to get more people and more seats headed off the island. in fact, hawaiian airlines has even started adding $19 fares to try and incentivize people to leave. the big question now is how to deal with people coming in. you mentioned united and american airlines have canceled
thing. those who have shown aloha by heeding our call to leave the island at this time, you know, we re thankful here at this assistance center to be able to reciprocate that and take care of folks on their journey home. what s your message to people maybe on the mainland who are trying to reach family or loved ones who could be traveling in maui? the american red cross does a great job managing shelters. you can call 1-800-red-cross if you re trying to get in touch with someone. also our state emergency management website, ready.hawaii.gov has a butch of resources for people looking for people, folks wishing to help in some way, or keeping up with the latest. when do you want tourists back on maui? you know, it s important to note that the impacted area is west maui, including the resort
their flights on to the island. that s a big deal because some of those flights are nonstops from places as far away as chicago, denver, l.a.x. the head of transportation at hawaii, his name is ed sniffen. he says that right now, the best thing that s happening is that airlines are waiving their fees. meaning that if you had a trip to hawaii, to maui, you can change your trip free of charge. no change fees on pretty much every major airline that flies to maui. he says, i want you to listen now, it is helping people although the island will be open for business again soon, he insists. we really appreciate what the airlines have done. we look at the transpacific flights, alaska, delta, united, and american have increased capacity by bringing in larging planes to insure we get more seats to get more people off the island. southwest has dropped their fares and increased their
areas of luhina, there are other parts of maui, less affected. if folks have travel plans in the coming weeks, they should check with their accommodations to see what the situation is. on the other islands, the island of hawaii had some impact from brush fires, but certainly check with your lodging provider, if you have a trip planned in the next couple weeks. for the rest of the islands of oahu, kauai, they re here, ready to welcome folks. so if in doubt, check it out. all right, thank you so much for being with us. best of luck. get some sleep if you can. kate. coming up for us, two of donald trump s co-defendants are set to enter pleas on new charges in the classified documents case. we re going to take you live to the courthouse in florida. plus, fbi agents shoot and
President Joe Biden declared the fires a "major disaster" and unblocked federal aid for relief efforts, as residents said they needed more help and feared it would take years for the town to recover.