New travel plans taking flight for road Warriors

After 17 years, the University of Hawaii is once again a charter school.

This season, the UH football team is using charter flights for all but one leg of its five road games. The charters enabled the Rainbow Warriors to play Washington State in Pullman, Wash., on a Saturday afternoon and return to Honolulu that night.

“I was in my bed the same day we played Washington State,” quarterback Brayden Schager said. “Then you can focus on a new week.”

UH coach Timmy Chang said: “Every second, every minute, every hour you can save really helps.”

The Warriors, well rested and well prepared, defeated Nevada 34-13 the following week.

In advance of Saturday’s road game against Fresno State, the Warriors will practice this morning at the Ching Complex, then take a non-stop flight to Fresno Yosemite Airport. After Saturday’s game, they return on a charter to Honolulu. In past road games against the Bulldogs, the Warriors would make the 4-hour bus ride between Los Angeles and Fresno.

“The bus rides to Wyoming (from Denver) and even Fresno (to and from Los Angeles) have been tough,” Schager said. “It’s hard to play a football game after that. Any help we can get is appreciated. We already have a hard travel schedule.”

For most of its modern-football history, the Warriors traveled on commercial flights between Hawaii and the continent, then often bused to the city where the game would be played. In 1998, when the Major League Baseball playoffs conflicted with a football game against San Diego State at Jack Murphy Stadium, the San Diego Padres paid for charter flights for UH as part of an inconvenience fee for rescheduling. Aloha Airlines provided charter flights for the Warriors during their 12-0 regular season in 2007. But Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy and then ceased operations for good on March 31, 2008.

Last year, recently hired athletic director Craig Angelos learned the Warriors would use charter flights for only the trip to Nashville for the 2023 season opener against Vanderbilt.

“Every FBS team in the country charters,” Angelos said. “When I came here and saw we only chartered to Vanderbilt and everything else was a commercial flight with regular passengers on there, I thought: ‘is there a better way to do it?’ We’re going there way early and also staying overnight after the game.”

Angelos noted last year’s road game against Oregon ended at 8:42 p.m. Pacific time. The Warriors left Autzen Stadium at about 10 p.m. They made the 2-hour bus ride from Eugene to Portland, checked into a hotel, and boarded a commercial flight to Honolulu on Sunday morning. “And you get in on Sunday afternoon,” Angelos said.

He asked his business office to do a cost analysis comparing UH’s first five road games last year and the price of using charters for this year’s five road games. By traveling closer to game day and leaving two hours after the final whistle, Angelos was told, it would be $70,000 cheaper to use charter flights this year compared to last year’s travel itinerary utilizing commercial flights.

He said the shorter period on the road would save on the cost of 75 rooms for the 110-member travel party, and reduce the number of meals. While costs vary on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, according to Angelos, it averages to $300 per person each day for meals at the hotel.

“Food is an expensive part of it,” Angelos said. “Those and the hotel costs are the biggest ones that you erase if you don’t leave too early and also erase on the back end if you don’t have to stay overnight and have another three meals or so.”

Angelos said Hawaiian Airlines offered a good rate of about $150,000 for a round trip. He said Starlink satellite service provides internet access on the flights. He said players also have an empty middle seat in three-seat rows. “And they get plenty of food,” Angelos said. “I joke it’s no different than them sitting in their living room for five, six hours. It’s a great opportunity for them going out as well as coming back. You’re out of the stadium an hour after the game’s over. Hopefully, (the plane’s) wheels are up an hour after that.”