Hawaiian Airlines Applies for Expanded Service in Japan

File photo by Wendy Osher.

Hawaiian Airlines has applied to expand its service to include two non-stop routes between Haneda International Airport in Tokyo and Hawai’i.

The application was flied Thursday with the United States Department of Transportation.

One of the new routes would be to Kona International Airport three times a week. The second would be an additional daily route to Honolulu. The Honolulu flight would be in addition to Hawaiian’s current flight during the daytime hours.

“Hawaiian Airlines was among the first three U.S. airlines granted route authority from Haneda in 2010, and our Honolulu service has been by far the most successful of the original services,” said Mark Dunkerley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiian.

The decision to apply for expansion of services in Japan follows the February agreement made between the U.S. Government and the Government of Japan that increases the number of daily flights for U.S. airlines to operate between Haneda and the U.S. from four currently to six.

“We have more than held our own against much larger competitors. Allowing us to keep our authority for daily Haneda-Honolulu flights and to supplement them with new flights to Kona and to Honolulu will signal that the U.S. DOT values competition from smaller, independent carriers against the mega-carriers advantage by mergers and antitrust immunized alliance agreements,” said Dunkerley.

Hawaiian said in its application notes that Hawaiian has flown the largest number of passengers to Haneda than any other carrier in the U.S., and that service to Honolulu has added $941 million to the U.S. GDP. The company makes note that it has generated $564 million in direct spending and created 2,337 new jobs.

The flights would be served with its A330 aircraft.