Trans Executive Airlines of Hawaii is an American airline headquartered at
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main airport of Oahu, Hawaii.Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, operating
cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
flights under the name Transair and passenger air charter and tour flights under the name Transair Global. The airline was started in 1982 by Teimour Riahi. As of 2019, the airline operated a fleet of six
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
-200 (five cargo configuration, one VIP passenger configuration) and four Short 360 aircraft.
According to the airline's website, "The all-cargo B-737 aircraft are operated by Rhoades Aviation,Inc. d.b.a. Transair, and the all-cargo SD3-60-300 are operated by Trans Executive Airlines of Hawaii, Inc. d.b.a. Transair Express."
On July 2, 2021, after but unrelated to the Flight 810 incident, the Rhoades Aviation Inc. division was grounded by the
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) due to maintenance and safety deficiencies. This idled their one remaining operational 737-200 jet, but did not affect operations of the Transair Express turboprops. On May 25, 2022, citing numerous safety violations found during its investigation of Flight 810, the FAA announced that it is revoking Rhoades' air operator's certificate. Among the cited violations were 33 flights undertaken with engines that were not
airworthy
In aviation, airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. Initial airworthiness is demonstrated by a certificate of airworthiness issued by the civil aviation authority in the state in which the aircraft is register ...
. Rhoades was given until June 8 to appeal the agency's decision.
Destinations
*
Hilo
Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Hawaii (island), Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 United ...
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
Kona International Airport
Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole is the busiest airport on the Island of Hawaii. It is located in Kalaoa CDP, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, near the town of Kailua-Kona. The airport serves leeward (western) Hawai ...
)
*
Lihue
Lihue or Līhue is an unincorporated community, census-designated place (CDP) and the county seat of Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. Lihue (pronounced ) is the second largest town on the Hawaiian island of Kauai after Kapaa. As of the 2010 ...
Kamuela, Hawaii
Waimea is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 7,028 at the 2000 census and 9,212 at the 2010 census. Since each U.S. state cannot have more than one post office of the same name, and th ...
(
Waimea-Kohala Airport
Waimea-Kohala Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) southwest of Kamuela (also known as Waimea), an unincorporated town in Hawai‘i County, Hawai‘i, United States.
Hawaiian Airlines began sc ...
)
*
Molokai
Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...
(
Molokai Airport
Molokai Airport, also known as Hoolehua Airport is a state-owned, public use airport located six nautical miles (7 mi, 11 km) northwest of Kaunakakai, on the island of Molokai in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. It is the ...
)
*
Lanai
Lanai ( haw, Lānai, , , also ,) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple pl ...
(
Lanai Airport
Lanai Airport , also written as Lānai Airport, is a state-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles or about 3.4 miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Lanai City (Lānai City), in Maui County, Hawaii. ...
)
Fleet
Incidents
In the early morning hours of July 2, 2021,
Transair Flight 810
Transair Flight 810, a Boeing 737-200 converted freighter aircraft on a short cargo flight en route from Honolulu International Airport to Kahului Airport on the neighboring Hawaiian island of Maui, experienced mechanical difficulties and cra ...
, a Boeing 737-200 cargo aircraft, experienced an engine failure shortly after taking off from Honolulu's
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main airport of Oahu, Hawaii.Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
. The crew were attempting to return to
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
when the plane's other engine overheated, forcing them to ditch about south of
Oahu
Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...
. Both pilots were rescued by the
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
. The U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
initiated actions to conduct an accident investigation.
On July 16, the FAA revoked the maintenance inspection authority of Rhoades Aviation, the certificate holder that operates the 737-200 aircraft, based on findings from an ongoing investigation of its operation that began in 2020.