Hawaiian Airlines seeks to add new flights to Tokyo
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus A330.
KAILUA-KONA » Hawaiian Airlines is looking to add a second nonstop route between Hawaii and Tokyo, a move expected to bring more than $100 million to the state each year.
The airline said in a news release last week that if the U.S. Department of Transportation approves the routes, new flights to Japan’s Haneda International Airport would be available from Honolulu International Airport four times per week and Kona International Airport three times weekly, West Hawaii Today reported.
Hawaiian Airlines said Kona’s is the third-largest airport that is unable to offer passengers direct service to Japan’s most densely populated city, despite having more point-of-sale Japanese passengers than 11 other U.S. destinations that offer nonstop flights to Tokyo.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation said just one new international flight is expected to generate about $113 million in spending annually and boost the state’s tax revenue to around $14 million each year.
State lawmakers approved $50 million in funds for Kona International Airport in a supplemental budget in March. The money, which is awaiting final approval, would go toward upgrading the airport’s facilities and construction of a permanent federal inspection station to accommodate international flights.
Even if the funding is secured, there still may be challenges to building the inspection station to meet U.S. Customs and Border Protection standards because the airport has not yet been approved to set up such a facility.
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Hawaii transportation officials are working to recertify the facility at Kona. If that process is successful, construction of a permanent inspection station would take about two years, the officials said.
6 responses to “Hawaiian Airlines seeks to add new flights to Tokyo”
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Why the focus on Japanese tourist rather Korean or Chinese since their economy is growing while Japan’s is declining? In fact the Japanese visitors of recent are mostly younger than back 15 years ago when they had more spendable income. Tha Korean and Chinese currently traveling abroad with spendable income higher than the Japanese?
Chinese and Korean tourists don’t buy omiage to take home
Who else is applying to fly into Kona? What about Japan Airlines or ANA?
JAL did fly into Kona for many years but pulled out because it was not profitable.
Okay?! So, Hawaiian think they can turn a profit doing Kona – Haneda? Oh yeah! Just increase the inter-island ticket prices and increase the baggage fees for the locals. Hmmmmm, my bag costs $25 to go from Honolulu to Lihue and $25 to go from Honolulu to New York…go figure!
Every time an airline announces an additional flight or flights to Hawaii, the airline, State and tourism officials always announce rosy projections about the number of visitors and revenue the new flight or flights will bring in to the state, and almost always they are wrong. I am a frequent traveler between Hawaii and Japan and know first-hand that most flights have some empty seats. Adding the additional HAL flights will not bring in many more visitors and revenue and instead will give those planning to come one more option for air travel. Thus, the additional passengers HAL might get will be people taken away from other airlines.