Private Jet Traffic up on Maui

Airport busy with private jets
Traffic higher than last year, but no record set

KAHULUI - The annual swarm of private jets has arrived at Kahului Airport
for New Year's.

Kahului Airport Manager Jon Sakamoto said Friday nobody keeps statistics on
the number of private jets arriving on Maui, so there's no way of knowing
what the record might be for a day or a weekend.

"We're pretty busy," he said.

The number on Maui over the weekend varied, but there were at least 25 late
Thursday, according to David Bohn. Bohn is station manager for Bradley
Pacific Aviation, one of three servicing companies that take care of private
planes at Kahului Airport.

Anson Kwon, station manager for Air Service Pacific, said his company was
handling eight planes Thursday with more expected over the weekend.

Last New Years', when the people who owned private jets were staying home
worrying about their computers, does not provide a good comparison, but Kwon
said two years ago "we had 21 planes."

He understands the record was more than 30, but that was before his time.

"We get all kind people," says Kwon. Mostly it's "people who did good in
business, not too many movie stars."

Some of the planes are owned by the people who flew in, and these tend to
stay parked on the apron for several days.

Others are fractionally owned and zip in to unload passengers, then take off
to deliver other co-owners to other destinations.

Bohn estimates that his company has serviced 45 to 50 planes since the heavy
holiday traffic began on Dec. 15 with "more to go."

The third air service company at Kahului Airport is Century Aviation Inc.
The station manager for Century could not be reached by telephone Friday. He
was busy.

No wonder.


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