Hawaiian Airlines Completes Inaugural Airbus A321neo Flight

Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A321neo. PC: Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines completed the first scheduled commercial flight of its newest aircraft, the Airbus A321neo, out of Kahului Airport on Maui on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018.

It was a full flight for guests aboard Hawaiian’s new A321neo service between Kahului and Oakland International Airport. The daily non-stop flight, HA24, departs Kahului at 1:30 p.m. and arrives at Oakland at 8:20 p.m. Flight HA23 departs Oakland at 7:50 a.m. and arrives in Kahului at 11:35 a.m.

Hawaiian has so far received two of 18 narrow-body Airbus A321neos that will be delivered to the company through 2020. As more of the A321neo aircraft arrive, Hawaiian will introduce new routes, including a Los Angeles (LAX)-Kona (KOA) on the Island of Hawai‘i this summer.

New flights also include Portland (PDX)-Kahului (OGG) on Jan. 18, followed by flights between Oakland (OAK) and Līhu‘e (LIH) on Kaua‘i starting April 11.

In addition to celebrating today’s first scheduled A321neo flight, between Kahului (OGG) on Maui and Oakland (OAK), Hawaiian Airlines also announced it will begin daily non-stop flights between Long Beach (LGB) and Honolulu (HNL) in the summer. The new route, will be inaugurated on May 31 out of Honolulu on the new A321neo aircraft.

Among other features, the plane is 40% quieter than other planes that Hawaiian has been flying.

“We’ve invested in 18 of these state-of-the-art aircraft and they’re smaller than the existing airplanes that we fly to the US mainland which means that we can inaugurate service to new markets that previously we haven’t been able to fly,” said Hawaiian Airlines President & CEO Mark Dunkerley. “And today we are also announcing in that vein that we are going to be starting in May flying from Honolulu to Long Beach California.”

“Everything we’ve learned about remodeling the 330 and 747 is incorporated into what we’ve done in the 321,” said Hawaiian Airlines Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer Peter Ingram.

“I’ve been flying I believe going on my 40th year now,” said Hawaiian Airlines Flight Attendant Sandra Kaaa. “I’ve flown just about every plane there is. It’s a little smaller but it’s very exciting and modern and I’m really excited to serve the passengers on this flight and that’s why I’m here for the inaugural flight.”