Hawaiian Airlines completes application for Tokyo-Kona service

Hawaiian Airlines completed (14-Sep-2012) its application to operate daily Kona-Tokyo Haneda service. Included in the application to the US Department of Transportation (DoT) were 175 letters of support for the route from businesses and individuals throughout the state. "Our application did an extremely good job of outlining the public benefit in establishing a daily nonstop route between Tokyo and Kona," said Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO Mark Dunkerley, who added, "This route would bring an additional $74 million into the state and U.S. economies every year, supporting an additional 1,400 jobs - mostly on the Island of Hawai'i." Kona has been without a non-stop service from Japan since 29-Oct-2010 when Japan Airlines discontinued direct service from Tokyo Narita. Hawaiian is competing for the routes against three legacy carriers: Delta Air Lines, which hopes to operate Seattle-Tokyo service in partnership with Alaska Airlines; American Airlines, which hopes to operate Los Angeles-Tokyo service; and United Airlines, which is seeking approval for a San Francisco-Tokyo route. The route was originally awarded to Delta in 2010 for service between Tokyo and Detroit, and was opened up for bid by the DoT last month after Delta asked for permission to transfer its rights to the Tokyo-Seattle service. In its application, Hawaiian said it intends to commence service approximately 90 days after DoT approval, or approximately 15-Mar-2012, using 294-seat A330-200 aircraft. If approved, this would be Hawaiian's fifth Japan route and fourth daily non-stop flight between Japan and Hawaii. The airline already operates daily service to Honolulu from Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka, and will launch three times weekly service to Sapporo on 30-Oct-2012. [more - original PR]