United Airlines is planning to begin daily service from Washington/ Dulles International Airport to Honolulu beginning June 7.
The flight will be the only nonstop service between the two destinations and will fill a void that had left Hawaii’s 10th-largest mainland tourism market without a nonstop flight to the islands.
Hawaii Tourism Authority CEO Mike McCartney said Tuesday the new route will provide an estimated $135 million in visitor spending and $14 million in tax revenue to Hawaii’s economy annually.
"Coupled with the recent establishment of Hawaiian Airlines’ new flight connecting Honolulu and New York City, the routes will help to provide much-needed access from the Hawaiian Islands to the East Coast," McCartney said.
Hawaiian will initiate its service from New York to Honolulu on June 5, two days before the first Washington, D.C., flight. Hawaiian’s first flight from Honolulu to John F. Kennedy International Airport will be on June 4. The New York-Honolulu service is the only nonstop flight from that airport.
Continental Airlines offers daily nonstop service from nearby Newark, N.J., to Honolulu.
With the addition of nonstop service to Washington D.C., the only city in the top 16 markets for Hawaii tourism without nonstop service is Boston, according to HTA data.
United, the largest carrier between the mainland and Hawaii, connects the islands with eight mainland cities as well as Tokyo, Guam and Majuro, offering nonstop service in 23 city pairs.
"We continue to capitalize on the combined resources of United and Continental to create a network that gives our customers more flights to the places they want to go," said James Starnes, United’s director of domestic planning. "The flexibility of our fleet allows us to put the right aircraft in the right markets to serve new communities and to add additional flights to communities we already serve."
Parent company United Continental Holdings Inc., formed in October 2010 by a merger of the two airlines, is still operating the two carriers under separate brand names as it works on the integration.
Chris Kam, senior director of market insights for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, said the agency had been talking to United about the potential of the Washington, D.C., market for Hawaii, and HVCB was contacted within the last week to see how HVCB could support the launch of such a route.
"They wanted our input on the market potential for the route as well," Kam said. "We agreed to bring cooperative marketing dollars to promote the launch of the route for D.C. and the feeder markets through paid media and public relations."
Kam said the routes from New York and Washington, D.C., help fill a gap that was created by the suspension of air service in recent years from Charlotte, N.C.; Detroit; and Minneapolis.
