Transair to resurrect Hawaii cargo business after defeating FAA shutdown
Hawaiian airline Transair is attempting a comeback four years after one of its cargo jets crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Honolulu and federal aviation authorities grounded the cargo carrier for alleged safety violations.
Executives say the airline could resume interisland service by the tail end of this year, if preparations go according to plan.
Rhoades Aviation, the legal entity flying aircraft under the Transair brand, got a reprieve in November when a National Transportation Safety Board administrative law judge dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration's move to revoke its operating certificate as a scheduled airline.
FAA officials are now working with Rhoades Aviation to bring it into compliance with federal aviation regulations, as ordered by Judge Alisa Tapia, the agency confirmed on Friday.
In a statement to FreightWaves, the FAA said it has assigned a team of specialists to help Transair restart operations. Regulators and company officials are expected to meet soon and jointly develop a comprehensive plan for resuming operations.
'We appreciate the NTSB judge's thorough review of this matter,' said CEO Teimour Riahi. 'We look forward to doing now what we have wanted all along: to work collaboratively with the FAA so that Transair can provide vitally important cargo air transportation for the benefit of Hawaii's residents, communities, and businesses. We remain committed to upholding the highest safety standards as we work to restore Hawaii's only locally owned Part 121 airline.'
Transair also holds a license to operate unscheduled passenger and cargo charter flights with a small fleet of mostly Shorts 360 turboprop aircraft. The grounding of the 737 fleet didn't affect the charter business because regulations for charter aircraft under the federal code differ from ones governing larger, scheduled airlines that fly more frequently.
Transair has four 737-200 cargo aircraft parked on its base at Honolulu airport that require a comprehensive maintenance service before they can be returned to service, said Tracy Reasoner, vice president of operations, in an email exchange.
The initial number of aircraft to be deployed will be determined once the C-checks, which involve technicians performing a deep inspection of a large majority of the aircraft's components, are completed. At the time of the accident in 2021, Transair was operating with two cargo jets.
'We anticipate that the return of our services will be implemented in a phased approach over time,' Reasoner explained.
Transair will begin to hire pilots and other personnel as it prepares to resume 'and potentially expand our operations,' he added.
Tapia's decision against the FAA was damning. The agency grounded Transair two weeks after the crash landing in 2021 for maintenance and safety practices that were separate from the crash inquiry. In May 2022, the FAA announced its intent to revoke Transair's air operator's certificate for a series of alleged violations, operating 33 flights with engines that weren't airworthy because compressor fan blades didn't meet manufacturer standards.
Grounded carriers would normally have their certificates revoked for dormancy if the airline's fitness is not redetermined within a year, but Rhoades Aviation managed to obtain limited extensions to this deadline in order to discuss its situation with the FAA, according to aviation publication FlightGlobal.
Rhoades Aviation in January 2023 appealed the FAA order to put it out of business.
In a blistering opinion, the administrative law judge said the FAA overreached its authority, tried to submit extraneous evidence during certain proceedings, bundled unrelated enforcement cases and that the FAA took an unreasonable amount of time – between 10 and 21 months – to issue citations to Rhoades Aviation after discovering alleged violations.
Tapia specifically faulted the FAA for dragging its feet in providing guidance to the family-owned air carrier on how to update technical manuals, undercutting the argument that the company was unresponsive. And she said there was no evidence that inspectors told Rhoades Aviation that the aircraft with alleged engine defects were unworthy and should be grounded. Many paperwork corrections could have been achieved by temporarily grounding aircraft rather than seeking to shut down the company.
The judge blamed FAA inspectors for being sloppy and failing to document their contacts with the company.
'The complaint pleads a compendium of mundane compliance issues stockpiled in an attempt to substitute volume for severity. … The Administrator's inaction – or delayed action – is evidenced throughout the record, from stale charges and lack of diligence to an untimely filing of the complaint,' she wrote.
The NTSB investigation found that the 2021 accident was caused by pilot confusion over which engine was experiencing a partial power loss shortly after takeoff, which caused them to rely on the damaged engine for power instead of the good left engine that would have enabled them to safely fly back. The captain sustained serious injuries and the first officer was relatively unharmed from the water landing.
Last year, the Department of Labor forced Transair to return more than $450,000 in back pay to 250 employees who were allegedly shortchanged full pay and benefits while fulfilling a $113 million U.S. Postal Service contract to ship mail among the Hawaiian islands between 2019 and 2021.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Pilot mix-up of failing engine caused 2021 cargo jet crash off Hawaii
The post Transair to resurrect Hawaii cargo business after defeating FAA shutdown appeared first on FreightWaves.
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