Manuiwa Airways, Incorporated

Manuiwa Airways, Incorporated, doing business as Volcano Helicopters, is a minority-owned, Asian-Pacific American small business based in Honolulu, Hawaii, that provides on-call helicopter flight services to the Department of the Interior and subordinate bureaus as a prime contractor under total small business set-aside and full-and-open delivery orders. The vendor operates under NAICS 481211 (Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation) and performs 100 percent of its federal work as a prime contractor, with no subcontractor footprint in the source data.

Manuiwa Airways delivers helicopter services spanning volcanic monitoring, emergency response, aerial surveys, personnel transport, cargo delivery, vegetation management, wildlife operations, and infrastructure inspection across Interior Bureau customer organizations. Work is performed in Hilo, Hawaii, with subordinate operations throughout the Hawaiian Islands. The vendor maintains direct operational control over its helicopter fleet and does not rely on major subcontractors. Representative delivery orders include a $22,000 award from the National Park Service Pacific West Region on May 13, 2026, for vegetation fuels reduction operations at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; an $80,000 award from the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaii Volcano Observatory on August 20, 2025, for on-call volcano monitoring services; and a $108,250 award from the Pacific West Region on November 19, 2024, for 40-mile fence project support at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, all under fixed-price with economic price adjustment or firm fixed-price structures.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward the Department of the Interior. The top five Interior entities account for approximately 72 percent of awards by count: the National Park Service Pacific West Region (84 awards, $815 thousand combined potential value), the National Park Service Alaska Region (62 awards, $1 million), the Interior Business Center (15 awards, $18.4 million), the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaii Volcano Observatory (14 awards, $855 thousand), and the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center (8 awards, $177 thousand). The top customers by potential value diverge notably: the Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Management and Budget anchors $38.2 million across only two awards, while Interior Business Center's $18.4 million and the discretionary grant line drive outsized dollar share relative to order count.

Manuiwa Airways holds a primary seat on the Interior Business Center's $9 million Indefinite Delivery Contract for contractor-provided helicopter flight services in Hawaii (IDC 140D8122D0007), from which 76 task orders carry $1.2 million in combined potential value. The vendor also placed 65 task orders worth $995 thousand under the predecessor DOI Alaska On Call Helicopter Flight Services vehicle (2017–2021) and 46 orders worth $911 thousand under the Helicopter Rental Services in Hawaii vehicle (2013–2017). Recent activity shows contraction: awards per year declined from 29 in 2022 to 10 in 2026 year-to-date, with only five awards (combined potential value $257 thousand) reaching completion in the next twenty-four months, presenting minimal recompete exposure but signaling reduced task-order volume from Interior bureaus. Combined potential value across all 255 prime awards stands at $62.4 million, though only $4.9 million (8 percent) has been obligated to date, indicating ceiling-heavy pricing on the parent IDCs and modest invoiced work relative to contract capacity. The vendor has operated continuously since March 2002 and maintains registration in the System for Award Management with active status.