INTER-ISLAND carrier Aloha Airlines plans to start its first US West Coast services to Hawaii in February 2000.
The airline is scheduling four daily round-trip flights from San Francisco, including two daily to Hawaii, one to Honolulu and another to Maui. It will use new Boeing 737-700 aircraft on the routes.
Hawaiian Airlines, perhaps better known for its operation of more than 150 daily flights between the islands, has also started daily wide-body services between Los Angeles and Maui.
The flights continue with direct service from Maui to Kona, on Hawaii, three days a week.
The carrier operates a fleet of DC10-30s between the major islands and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland in Oregon, as well as Las Vegas.
Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau UK general sales agent Julie Blissett said: “The increase in seat capacity can only be good news for Hawaii. As a destination served almost exclusively by air, the allocation of more seats means more choice for visitors in getting to the islands.”
The biggest-capacity airline serving Hawaii from London over the West Coast is United Airlines, which has also increased frequencies on a number of routes.
Recent developments included the start of a daily LA-Kauai service, as well as a Saturday flight from San Francisco. It now also flies twice daily to Kona on Hawaii and thrice daily to Maui from both LA and San Francisco.
United has raised the frequency on some Hawaiian routes by adding extra flights on Boeing 757s in place of larger aircraft like B747s.
This will lead to the introduction in mid-December of a fifth daily B757 service between LA and Honolulu.
It will leave LA at 5.30pm, while the return flight from Honolulu arrives on the West Coast just over an hour earlier at 4.25pm, providing good connections both ways.
Despite a 16hr flight time from London to the Hawaiian islands via the West Coast, Blissett says increasingly competitive seat rates have helped to bring the destination more into line with the Caribbean market.
She said: “I believe the popularity of destinations goes in cycles in their level of attraction and Hawaii has actually picked up many visitors who have already been to the Caribbean.
“But it is now certainly priced competitively with the Caribbean by UK tour operators. You also have the added benefit of Hawaii being the 50th state of the US, so the infrastructure and services are reliable.”