Akina family members have witnessed major changes in South Maui as their enterprise changed and grew during nearly a century in the transportation business. General manager Cassie Akina-Ancog is a fourth-generation Akina to run the business in South Maui. The Maui News/Gary Kubota

From mules to buses, generations of the Akina family have learned to survive and thrive.

A native of Kaho’olawe Island and son of a Kihei homesteader in the early 1900s, Maui bus founder Alexander Boniface Akina learned how to successfully live in areas with little or no water, helping to establish a base for a successful transportation business for the past 90 years.

“The Akinas have been innovative and unafraid of trying new ventures,” said Cassie Akina-Ancog, the general manager and Alex Akina’s granddaughter.

Akina Tours and Transportation now employs more than 45 people and operates a fleet of 23 school buses and a fleet of motor coaches, mini coaches and vans. In 2028, the business will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Generations of the Akina family have been a part of Maui’s transportation services, including Alexander Boniface Akina, who started the taxi and school bus service, and his son Doug Akina and Doug’s wife Sandra, who started the transportation tour business. Photo courtesy Akina family

The Hawaiian family-owned business has operated school buses as well as visitor tours and transportation. It also helped jump-start the first public bus system in a joint venture with the county and Maui Economic Opportunity in 2002.

“They were wonderful partners,” said Debbie Cabbie, Maui Economic Opportunity’s chief executive officer.

The Akinas lived in South Maui when the arid, sandy 14-mile coastal community from Maalaea to Makena had no hotels, long before the county and its resort partners developed a major waterline from Wailuku to Makena in the mid-1970s, spurring development.

In the late 1800s, Alex’s grandfather, Chinese immigrant Ah Sin Pat, who had married Hawaiian Luka Kalua, slowly acquired more than 100 acres of land in Kihei for as low as a dollar an acre.

Alex’s father, Auhana, who changed his last name to Akina, worked at a number of jobs, shearing sheep on the nearby island of Kahoolawe and raising pigs.

In the early 1900, Alex Akina and his dad Auhana used what they had — an abundance of kiawe trees in Kihei — transporting firewood to sell to residents and businesses in Wailuku. On their return trip, they’d fill their mule-drawn wagon with barrels of water for their home.

The Akinas believed in the future of Kihei at a time when work was scarce in South Maui.

During World War II, when Navy divers known as “frogmen” went through underwater demolition training off Charlie Young Beach, the Akinas ran a small tavern and began providing taxi service for the military personnel.

The ships were parked offshore.

The Akina family ran a taxi service for military personnel who were preparing for wartime maneuvers in South Maui waters. Photo courtesy Story of Hawaii Museum Exhibit

Alex also drove his children and eventually those of his neighbors to St. Anthony School in a small bus aptly known as the “banana wagon.”

Alex’s son Doug Akina, who besides serving as manager was a licensed diesel mechanic, took over the reins of Akina Bus Service in 1984, and with his wife Sandra, established Akina Aloha Tours in 1988, responding to demand from the Japan market.

Kihei’s residential population grew from 11,107 to 16,749 from 1990 to 2000.

The Akinas were the first transportation company to bring in top-of-the-line Belgium-made Van Hool Motorcoaches into the state of Hawai’i.

Doug partnered with ABC Companies and traveled to Belgium to visit the factory where the exterior of the buses was manufactured. He learned that the Van Hool buses had an excellent turning radius and special braking system for traveling up and down Haleakala National Park and except for the chassis, the other parts including the engine were made in the United States, making his work easier in finding parts.

Eventually, other Hawai’i companies bought them too.

Doug also started the Kihei Shoppers Shuttle running daily from the Wailea Resort area to Suda Store.

By 2002, the Akina’s earned the distinction of being ranked one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Motocoach Operators in the nation by Metro Magazine.

Cassie Akina remembers as a young child helping her mom clean and wash the school buses.

Later, as a paid part-time employee, she answered the office phone and worked as a dispatcher. At age 18 in 1993, she worked in operations then quickly was promoted to the group sales catering to Japanese and English-speaking visitors.

She became the general manager in 2006, when the former general manager left to move closer to his children on the North American continent.

Now, Cassie’s daughter, who is the fourth generation and recently gave birth to a child, works for the family business.

Cassie said she remembers a piece of advice her father Doug gave her: “Don’t use your head for a hat rack,” because your head is not just for wearing a hat, but for thinking, learning and problem-solving.

“I took the advice to heart in the current economy, where tourism in Hawai’i is evolving towards the well-being of Native Hawaiians, environmental protection and cultural preservation, and driver shortages nationwide continue to be a challenge,” she said.

Cassie said she remembers another piece of advice her father gave her: “Work smarter, not harder,” and she also has taken that to heart, as a raise in tariffs in Canada has decreased Canadian visitor volume significantly.

She said the business is operating as efficiently as possible.

“We’re sitting tight,” she said.