Jeffsetter Travel
Back in October Hawaiian announced that it planned to suspend service at its commuter subsidiary, Ohana. However, the DOT overruled them citing essential air service requirements. Now, though, the DOT has issued a new ruling allowing Ohana by Hawaiian to suspend all service soon.
Hawaiian, like many other airlines around the world, Hawaiian has, effectively, mothballed most of its fleet. This parking of planes then triggered a clause in Hawaiian’s labor contracts requiring it to discontinue Ohana service. Why? Because Hawaiian outsource Ohana to a third-party airline – Empire Airlines. All employees including pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance crews work for Empire, not Hawaiian. So, this clause is to help prevent internal competition from eroding mainline staffs’ opportunities. At the time, though, the DOT said that the requirements set forth by the Essential Air Services Act (EASA) overrode labor agreements. Specifically, EASA states that routes g