WAILUKU — Buddy Nobriga used to ride the ferry often as a kid, traveling from Maui to Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i to compete in sports and grab freshly baked loaves of hot bread from the back door of Kanemitsu Bakery in the middle of the night. 

Today, the ferry remains an important connection for his family, who runs Maui Soda & Ice Works and owns the Coca-Cola franchise for Maui and Lāna‘i, as well as for his friends who commute for work.

“From an economic standpoint, it’s helpful to both islands and ours,” Nobriga said.

A decade after ferry service to Moloka‘i folded in the face of falling ridership, Maui County is moving forward with plans to take over the existing ferry service to Lāna‘i and restore service to Moloka‘i, expanding options for residents who frequently travel between the islands for jobs, doctor’s appointments, Costco trips and sports.

Earlier this week, the county unveiled its proposal for a publicly operated interisland ferry service, which would include cheaper fares and routes operating out of both Mā‘alaea and Lahaina harbors on Maui depending on how rebuilding from the 2023 wildfire progresses. 

“It’s a long time coming,” said Maui County Council Member Gabe Johnson, who holds the Lāna‘i seat and has advocated for a county-run ferry. “After the fires, after COVID, after the storms that we keep facing, the transportation between the islands, it’s so important. And our ferry is our lifeline.”

Expeditions, a private company, currently runs the only interisland passenger ferry service in Maui County, with three round-trips daily between Mā‘alaea Harbor on Maui and Mānele Harbor on Lāna‘i. The 22-mile journey takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes one way. 

Steven Knight, vice president of Expeditions, said the company hopes Maui County’s plans to operate the ferry work out. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the Lahaina wildfire, which burned one of its boats, the company has lost ridership and revenue over the past few years.

“We really basically need to sell it,” said Knight, who has been with Expeditions since its founding in 1989.

The idea of a county-run interisland ferry service has been in talks for years. In 2023, the council included $300,000 in the fiscal year 2024 budget for a feasibility study proposed by Johnson. The study was completed last year and found that Maui County would need an annual subsidy of nearly $2 million to operate an interisland ferry system and more than $46 million to purchase and expand the fleet owned by Expeditions.

The county’s goal is to keep the existing Lāna‘i service and eventually expand to four round-trips daily, according to the study. Moloka‘i is expected to have two daily round-trips. An outside contractor would be hired to operate the ferry.

Will Haney, transportation program specialist for the Maui County Department of Transportation, said potential additional routes could include Mānele to Lahaina, a 15-mile route that would take less than an hour; Kaunakakai to Lahaina, a 24-mile route that would take 1 hour and 20 minutes; and Kaunakakai to Mā‘alaea, a 37-mile, two-hour trip. 

The return of ferry service to Lahaina depends on the rebuild, rider demand and available services, Haney said. If there are no professional services like doctors or lawyers, for example, fewer Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i residents may want to travel to Lahaina.

“We want to make it work for folks, so we’ll see as it goes,” Haney said Wednesday during a meeting in Lahaina.

Maui County’s proposed fares also are expected to be lower than current rates. Now, regular one-way fares are $66 for adults and seniors ages 65 and older and $34 for children, while kama‘āina rates are $40 for adults and $15 for seniors and children. Infants under 2 years old ride free.

The county is weighing two fare options. Option 1 would charge regular fares of $66 for adults and $33 for seniors and children, while kama‘āina fares would be $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and children. Option 2 would charge regular fares of $58 for adults and $29 for seniors and children, with kama‘āina fares of $26 for adults and $15 for seniors and children. 

Discounted commuter fares are also a possibility, Haney said. 

“One of the benefits of this program coming under the county is we can change the fares and rates to be a little bit more amenable to residents,” Haney said.

The only other interisland travel option is Mokulele Airlines’ nine-seater planes, which are typically faster — 30 minutes one way between each of the islands — but more expensive. A flight between one of the three islands can cost anywhere from $59 to $164 one way. 

Lāna‘i Air also recently launched service to Moloka‘i, but it only offers flights to Honolulu. One-way tickets are $169.

Haney sai the proposed ferry rates are just for planning purposes, with the mayor and the council ultimately deciding the fares during the annual budget process. 

The projected annual revenue of the Lāna‘i route is $3 million, only 60% of the projected annual cost for operations and maintenance. The funding gap could be covered by county, state and federal sources, Haney said. 

Cost estimates for Moloka‘i ferry operations are still to be determined, and involve the construction of new vessels to run the route. Knight estimated that a boat similar to the 65-foot, 149-passenger Expeditions 6 vessel, which is the capacity the county is seeking, could cost about $5 million. 

Work on an environmental study for the ferry is currently underway. Haney said the county hopes to draw up designs for new vessels this year and next. The goal is to put out a request for proposals in January 2027 and launch Lāna‘i service in mid-2027. 

Construction of the new vessels for Moloka‘i would take place from 2027 to 2029, with ferry service starting to Moloka‘i in 2029. Haney said one design option could be water jets instead of propellers to decrease the chances of whale strikes, a primary concern during the short-lived run of the Hawai‘i Superferry, a much bigger vessel with capacity for 866 passengers and up to 282 cars.

While Expeditions already has the fleet and routes in place for Lāna‘i, Haney said the county still has to go through the competitive bidding process. Knight thinks Expeditions is the most obvious candidate because there is no other interisland passenger ferry. 

Operating an interisland ferry is a critical service, but it’s not easy given the costs, ocean conditions and global events. The Moloka‘i Princess ferry, which launched in 1987 to transport Moloka‘i workers to West Maui resort jobs, struggled with declining ridership and low airline fares before shutting down in 2016. 

Expeditions also has weathered rough seas. During the pandemic, ridership plunged from 197,252 passengers on 3,559 voyages in 2019 to 53,515 passengers on 1,288 voyages in 2020, according to annual reports by the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission. It climbed back up to 174,986 riders on 2,845 voyages in 2022 before the 2023 Lahaina wildfire undercut business again. In 2024, Expeditions ferried 106,206 passengers on 1,830 voyages.

Ridership used to be about evenly split between residents and tourists, Knight said. Visitors started to outnumber tourists until the Lahaina fire. Now, the majority are residents. 

Costs to operate the Lāna‘i ferry were just under $4.9 million in 2022, according to Expeditions’ 2023 application for a rate increase. The company made a net income of $219,090.

In 2024, the company increased rates by $26 for adults and $5 for children and resident seniors due to lingering effects of the pandemic, rising fuel costs, falling tourism and the impacts of losing a boat in the wildfire and moving operations to Mā‘alaea.

Knight said he thinks the county’s plan is feasible if they subsidize it. He also believes “in this case, in this location in Hawai‘i,” it is more sustainable to have the county running the ferry the way it does the public bus system. 

Johnson said the biggest advantage of the county operating the ferry is its ability to access federal funding for operations, purchase of ferries or improvements to the harbors. The county also wouldn’t have to ask the Public Utilities Commission for rate approvals, which can take years. And, county-owned transportation is “service-driven,” whereas a private company has to think about profits, Johnson said.

Expeditions has been asked many times to add a Moloka‘i route. The company has sometimes run private charters for big groups like high school teams or canoe paddlers. But Knight said the route is “horrible” because of the often rough Pailolo Channel. A ferry for Moloka‘i would likely need to be catamaran style for stability and a little longer, perhaps around 85 feet, he said.

Kari Powers, construction manager for Bowers + Kubota, said transportation to Moloka‘i “is the most important tool to our construction projects.” The company manages projects for government agencies, including the Maui Fire Department and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. 

Bowers + Kubota has full-time inspectors and employees on Moloka‘i and knows “the struggle of strategic planning for events and residents who try to get back and forth by air, me included,” Powers said. The company has full-time inspectors and employees on Moloka‘i and knows “the struggle of strategic planning for events and residents who try to get back and forth by air, me included.” 

“Mokulele does their best, but they just can’t meet the needs,” Powers said. “Having a second mode of transportation and support is so important.”

In the last few years, frequent delays and multiple groundings by Mokulele Airlines pushed many Moloka‘i residents to pivot to personal fishing boats making runs between the islands.

Deserae Naeole and her family have become one of the unofficial ferry operators on Moloka‘i. About four years ago, she and her husband started taking their 30-foot boat from Pūko‘o to Māla Wharf when their kids started club wrestling and had weekly competitions on Maui. Other people got wind of it and started asking if they could get a ride for family lū‘au, graduations and other special occasions. 

“If we can help in any way we will,” Naeole said. “If I was in that predicament, I would want somebody to take me.”

Naeole, who grew up riding the ferry to Maui on weekends for high school volleyball matches, thinks it would be “good for the local people” if the ferry returned to Moloka‘i. However, she worries about the ferry bringing more tourists to an island with few visitor accommodations and just a handful of grocery stores where the shelves can empty after a couple of missed barge shipments. 

The Naeoles agreed to ferry some tourists to Maui when Mokulele flights were cancelled, and she said they just got a bunch of “attitude” in return.

“They’re like … ‘Oh, nobody told us we were going to get wet,’” Naeole recalled.

Naeole said interisland rides on personal boats have “definitely” increased within the last few years because of issues with Mokulele. She and her husband have taken a break from offering rides while their boat is repainted and repowered, but her brother-in-law continues to do runs on his 27-foot boat. 

After the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, Moloka‘i residents on personal boats were among the first to arrive with aid. At a meeting in Wailuku this week, Nobriga said that he hoped the county-run ferries would have enough space for cargo and could deliver supplies in emergencies, especially if Kahului Harbor, Maui’s only commercial port, were knocked out of commission. 

Johnson pointed out that just last week, Kaumālapa‘u Harbor, the commercial port that Lāna‘i relies on for weekly barge deliveries, closed temporarily for repairs after Hurricane Lowell left a large sinkhole in the dock, sparking long lines for gas and groceries.

Bill Caldwell, president of Expeditions, said the company offers the “cargo ferry” on Fridays for oversized goods as well as a returning sail on Monday morning. The ferry allows two suitcases and one carry-on at no charge. Excess bags, bikes, surfboards over 7 feet long, sailboards and kayaks are charged a fee and need to be requested in advance.

After watching the Moloka‘i ferry disappear because of financial struggles, Naeole hopes the county will have a better chance at keeping the service afloat. 

“I think they should, honestly,” she said. “They gotta step up for us over here.”