Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
Gov. David Ige will be in Japan until Tuesday for a series of meetings with travel and tourism companies, including JTB Corp., H.I.S. travel agency, Japan Airlines, Delta Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
While there, Ige will participate in a formal presentation of All Nippon Airways’ new fleet of Airbus A380s. The fleet, given the moniker Flying Honu to honor Hawaii’s green sea turtle, is made up of three of the airplanes and is scheduled to start service to Honolulu in the spring. Each of the planes features a different color scheme based on Hawaii’s landscape — sky blue, emerald green and sunset orange, according to the airline.
At the time of the purchase of the planes in January 2016, Bloomberg News reported their combined value to be $1.28 billion at list prices.
Ige is accompanied on his trip by first lady Dawn Amano-Ige and his chief of staff, Mike McCartney. Lt. Gov. Doug Chin will serve as acting governor until Ige returns.