Hawaiian Airlines applying for flights between Kona and Haneda

KAILUA-KONA — Hawaiian Airlines is seeking to operate a nonstop route between Tokyo and Kona International Airport.

The airline said Thursday it had filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate two nonstop routes between Haneda International Airport in Tokyo and Kona and Honolulu International Airport. Hawaiian Airlines is looking to fly between Kona and Japan three days each week and between Honolulu and Japan four days each week.

The routes would be in addition to existing Honolulu-Haneda service, Hawaiian Airlines said. The airline is seeking a daytime slot, but also noted a night-time slot would be a second choice.

The routes would be served with A330 aircraft capable of carrying 278 passengers in the first/business, extra comfort and main cabins.

Hawaiian Airlines says the second daily flight serving both Honolulu and Kona will create “additional public benefits and satisfy a market that has pent-up demand for nonstop service.” The company also noted that Kona is the third largest airport without nonstop service to Toyko “with more point-of-sale Japanese passengers than 11 other U.S. destinations which already enjoy non stop service from Japan’s most populous city.”

The request follows a proceeding established as a result of the February agreement between the U.S. Government and the Government of Japan which increases the number daily flights for U.S. airlines to operate between Haneda and the United States from four to six.

“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 CEO of Hawaiian Airlines.

“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 advantaged by mergers and antitrust immunized alliance agreements,” said Dunkerley.

The last direct flight between Kona and Japan, operated by Japan Airlines, ended in 2010.