Hawaiʻi Seaglider Initiative Launches with Airlines and Other Local Partners to Provide Affordable and Accessible Kamaʻāina Transportation

The Hawai’i Seaglid­er Ini­tia­tive (HSI) has launched with a broad coali­tion com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing a new afford­able and acces­si­ble trans­porta­tion option to Hawaiʻi com­mu­ni­ties, reports a press release.

Seaglid­ers are all-elec­tric, zero-emis­sion ves­sels that would oper­ate exclu­sive­ly over water at speeds of up to 180mph, dras­ti­cal­ly reduc­ing the time and cost of trans­port­ing peo­ple and freight between coastal com­mu­ni­ties. 

The craft oper­ate by float­ing on a hull before tran­si­tion­ing to wave-tol­er­ant under­wa­ter hydro­foils and then tak­ing flight at ultra-low alti­tudes, 30 to 60 feet above the water’s sur­face. evtolinsights.com has cov­ered sto­ries in the past about var­i­ous seaglid­er com­pa­nies with the best known being U.S‑based Regent and its Viceroy craft.

At launch, HSI mem­bers com­prise more than a dozen promi­nent cor­po­rate and com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions. They include AES Hawaiʻi, Alas­ka Air­lines, Hawai­ian Air­lines, Hawaiʻi Lodg­ing and Tourism Asso­ci­a­tion, Japan Air­lines, Mokulele Air­lines, Poly­ne­sian Adven­ture, Regent Craft and Retail Mer­chants of Hawaiʻi and Unit­ed Air­lines.

HSI has also signed a MOU (Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing) with the Hawai‘i Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (HDOT). It is sup­port­ive of alter­na­tive forms of inter-island trans­porta­tion using renew­able ener­gy for pas­sen­ger and freight ser­vices. This ini­tia­tive will col­lab­o­rate with HDOT and engage with oth­er state and local gov­ern­ment agen­cies to sup­port the state’s 2045 decar­bon­i­sa­tion goals.

Kuhio Lewis

Kuhio Lewis, CEO of The Coun­cil for Native Hawai­ian Advance­ment (CNHA) and an advi­sor to HSI, com­ment­ed, “CNHA is excit­ed to col­lab­o­rate with HSI to ensure that the intro­duc­tion of seaglid­ers pos­i­tive­ly impacts and uplifts Native Hawai­ians and com­mu­ni­ties across Hawai’i.”

He con­tin­ued, “We eager­ly antic­i­pate the trans­for­ma­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties that seaglid­ers bring to enhanc­ing the well-being of indi­vid­u­als through­out Hawaiʻi, par­tic­u­lar­ly our Molokai com­mu­ni­ty.”

Hawai’i Gov­er­nor Josh Green, added, “This invest­ment in our inter-island trans­porta­tion net­work will pro­vide a renew­able trans­porta­tion alter­na­tive that will help keep our com­mu­ni­ties con­nect­ed, sup­port our local busi­ness­es and build a resilient econ­o­my for Hawai’i.”

The release explains, “In 2024, HSI will con­tin­ue to devel­op the socioe­co­nom­ic and tech­ni­cal fea­si­bil­i­ty of estab­lish­ing an inter-island and intra-island seaglid­er net­work in Hawaiʻi. Through dis­cus­sion groups and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, mem­bers will focus on ready­ing then coun­try’s renew­able ener­gy and har­bour infra­struc­ture; address­ing cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns to strength­en Hawaiʻi’s dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and resilien­cy; train­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of high-paid skilled work­ers to sup­port the coun­try’s econ­o­my; and ensur­ing that local com­mu­ni­ties receive equi­table access to and ben­e­fits from a seaglid­er net­work.”

Mokulele Air­lines expects to be the first oper­a­tor of seaglid­ers any­where in the world, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly announced plans to accept deliv­ery of a fleet of 12-pas­sen­ger Viceroy all-elec­tric craft man­u­fac­tured by Regent by the mid­dle of the decade.

Because they oper­ate over water, they can more afford­ably con­nect rur­al com­mu­ni­ties to med­ical care, jobs, and oth­er impor­tant ser­vices. A route fea­si­bil­i­ty study esti­mates a one-way seaglid­er tick­et from Oʻahu to Maui or Oʻahu to Kauaʻi could cost as lit­tle as USD30.

The craft can also be out­fit­ted to trans­port car­go, includ­ing food and oth­er essen­tial goods between islands. Bring­ing down trans­porta­tion and sup­ply chain costs will help bring down the price of goods, increas­ing the pur­chas­ing pow­er of Hawaiʻi res­i­dents.

Hawai’i Gov­er­nor Josh Green

Mufi Han­ne­mann, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Hawaiʻi Lodg­ing & Tourism Asso­ci­a­tion, said, “The HSI is a game-chang­er for both kamaʻāi­na and vis­i­tor trav­el. This inno­v­a­tive devel­op­ment enhances our tourism prod­uct and pro­vides a whole new dimen­sion that feeds into our state’s mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion sys­tem.”

Avi Man­nis, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent and Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer of Hawai­ian Air­lines, remarked, “As an ear­ly investor and design part­ner for Regen­t’s 100-per­son seaglid­er, and as a com­pa­ny that has con­nect­ed the islands for 94 years with reli­able air ser­vice, we look for­ward to lend­ing our exper­tise to this com­mu­ni­ty effort and learn­ing more about the tech­nol­o­gy and its poten­tial to make inter-island trans­porta­tion more sus­tain­able.”

Back­ground

The HSI is a con­sor­tium of stake­hold­ers from local gov­ern­ment, Hawai’i com­mu­ni­ties and the pri­vate sec­tor, work­ing to increase under­stand­ing and adop­tion of seaglid­ers in the region with a focus on com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ture and the envi­ron­ment. HSI advo­cates for the use of seaglid­ers as an afford­able and acces­si­ble trans­porta­tion option for Hawaiʻi com­mu­ni­ties that will help mod­ernise the state’s trans­porta­tion net­work while meet­ing its net-zero green­house gas emis­sions tar­gets. 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.hawaiiseaglider.org/

Top image: Cred­it — Busi­ness Wire)