Hawaiian Airlines Bets You'll Want to Island Hop on Electric Seagliders

[mahatmakanejeeves]

WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE | BUSINESS

Hawaiian Airlines Bets You’ll Want to Island Hop on Electric Seagliders

Vehicles under development by startup Regent would seat 100 and provide lower-emissions alternative, carrier says

By Alison Sider
https://twitter.com/alyrose
[e-mail]
May. 11, 2022 8:30 am ET

Hawaiian Holdings Inc. HA -1.72%▼ is investing in a company developing electric seagliders that the airline hopes to fly on short hops between islands.

The battery-powered seagliders being developed by Regent, a Boston-based startup, are a hybrid of a boat and a plane. They would cruise five to 30 feet above the waves on average, flying on a cushion of air that keeps the plane aloft, known as the “ground effect.”

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[jimfields33]

1. The price should be a lot cheaper for passengers

If not, I wonder the interest.

[hunter]

2. Hawaii has rejected ordinary ferries for a long time.

The island economy is beholden to the airlines, and frankly none of the islands wants riffraff or cars from neighboring islands freely traveling about.

The airlines act as a barrier. Airplanes don't carry cars and airports are secured by the TSA.

A quarrelsome homeless person can't simply bum a twenty and hop to the next island, and a zillion cars from neighboring islands can't come flooding in for some special event.