The last time Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson came to Hawaii was in a hot air balloon that crashed in the ocean off Kahuku Point on Christmas Day 1998.
On Monday the landing was a lot smoother and the welcome more festive as the billionaire Branson was among about 130 passengers who arrived at Honolulu Airport on Virgin America’s inaugural flight to the islands from San Francisco.
“This time I looked out at the sea and noticed the whitecaps today and thought about that last occasion, but it was a much more pleasant journey,” Branson said in an interview aboard Virgin America’s Airbus 320 after it landed. “We danced in the aisles. We had a lot of Hawaiian singing onboard, and the service was very different. (In the balloon) we’d been in the air for 17 days when we crashed in the sea, and we were bedraggled and tired and looking forward to some good food.”
Virgin America touched down in Honolulu at 12:27 p.m., following a less than 5-1/2-hour flight from rainy San Francisco. A red carpet, flanked by the airline’s red-dressed flight attendants, was rolled out on the tarmac for the plane’s arrival. Pupu and tropical drinks were served to passengers and observers nearby under a white tent, and music was piped in to celebrate the event. Aboard the flight were hula dancers and a musician playing the ukulele.
Preschoolers from Punana Leo, a Hawaiian language immersion program, opened the festivities with a Hawaiian blessing.
It was a party atmosphere that continued into the evening with a new route launch gala at hairdresser Paul Mitchell’s oceanfront estate in Lanikai. The 1.5-acre estate, which rents for $5,150 a night, featured among its guests Kauai-born professional surfer Alana Blanchard, professional kiteboarder Susi Mai and actor Joe Manganiello of the movie “Magic Mike.”
Branson, 65, whose Virgin Group is a minority investor in the airline, said he planned to stay for most of the party.
“I have a speech in Italy at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning, and then I’m in Kenya the next morning, so I seem to spend a lot of time in the airplane,” he said. “I will be there for most of the party tonight, and then I’ll have to rush.”
But Branson, the 11th-richest person in the United Kingdom with a net worth of $5 billion, said he intends to return soon for his third trip to Hawaii.
“Now we have a lovely airline flying here,” he said. “I love to kite-surf. I love to surf. I’m part of a wonderful group called Mai Tai, and we brought some of those people down here as a big kite-surfing community. So I’ll definitely be using Virgin to come down here to kite-surf.”
Virgin America, which also plans to begin daily service from San Francisco to Kahului on Dec. 3, is making Honolulu and Kahului the 22nd and 23rd routes of its network. Branson said Virgin America plans to add Los Angeles service to Hawaii early next year but wouldn’t provide any details. The airline also serves major cities across the mainland as well as in Mexico.
The airline’s arrival in Hawaii will bolster an already crowded travel market from the U.S. West, which is Hawaii’s top visitor market. Visitor arrivals through the first nine months of this year from the U.S. West were up 7.5 percent to 2.6 million.
Arrivals from San Francisco, Virgin America’s main hub, were up 21.7 percent to 853,161 through the first nine months.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority estimates that Virgin America’s new flights will generate $138.6 million in visitor spending and $14.8 million in tax revenue annually in the state.
“Virgin America really targets a different market, maybe a little bit younger, and they are really focused on quality of service,” said Gov. David Ige, who boarded the plane for a firsthand look look after its arrival.
“We’re really glad to have them be part of the Hawaiian Islands. We do believe that we can help them be more successful, and adding more seats for Hawaii is really a good thing for us as well.”
Virgin America, named the best in U.S. air travel for eight straight years by Travel + Leisure magazine, has spruced up its Airbus 320 aircraft with leather seats, touch-screen personal entertainment, an on-demand food ordering system, Wi-Fi and power outlets at every seat.
Passenger Jeanne Sibley, a travel agent with Larkspur, Calif.-based Frosch International Travel, said she often flies on Virgin America to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and can’t get enough of the airline.
“The flight today was fantastic,” she said. “The aircraft inside is very cool — everything about it. The lighting, the flight attendants, the service is beyond all the others.”
Lori Lovejoy, who is involved with a chocolate company startup in San Francisco, said she was caught off guard by all the attention.
“It was honestly my first Virgin flight of any kind, and I thought what an awesome airline, not realizing there was a special event going on,” she said. “It was really a marvelous flight with more legroom than anything else. The dancers were amazing. The in-flight meal was amazing. Everything was delicious and fun. They really made a point of entertaining the passengers as well.”
HTA President and CEO George Szigeti, who was aboard the flight, called the performance by the hula dancers and the ukulele music “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen at 35,000 feet.” He said the presence of Virgin America will help increase total air seats to Hawaii to a record 11.8 million this year.
Virgin America President and CEO David Cush said Hawaii represents a good opportunity for expansion.
“We generally focus on business, but we do have lots of leisure,” Cush said. “(Hawaii is) a high-end leisure market with good fares. About 80 percent of the passengers are sold (tickets) in California, which of course is where our base is and where our strength is. So from a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense. The numbers look good. The advance bookings look good. I think from a cultural standpoint and an image standpoint, we think it’s very consistent with what we do. It’s a good outdoor market. People love the outdoors here, and we’re kind of a lifestyle market in that area, also. So there’s a lot of good things that make sense to us here.”
