KAILUA-KONA — At around noon Wednesday, the first international flight in half a dozen years arrived at the Kona International Airport at Keahole, bringing with it 280 passengers — a full flight — to the Big Island from Japan.
The flight, which runs thrice weekly between Kona and Haneda Airport in Tokyo, marks the return of international flights to the Big Island for the first time since 2010, making the airport the second international gateway in the state.
“It doesn’t get more positive than a full flight,” said Mark Dunkerley, chief executive officer of Hawaiian Airlines, at a ceremony marking the occasion.
Passengers who arrived at the airport were greeted with lei, food and gifts as local leaders celebrated a new step forward for promoting tourism and businesses in Kona and the Big Island.
Kirstin Kahaloa, executive director of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, said the reintroduction of international flights to the island is as big as it gets.
“The Christmas present our community has needed,” she called it.
Dunkerley commended the efforts of the community, government leadership and those within Hawaiian Airlines who worked to make the flight possible.
“We all have an interest in growing this economic engine,” he said.
Tourism, he explained, doesn’t just directly aid island residents in the hospitality industry. It also indirectly helps all sectors of the island’s economy.
Gov. David Ige said there’s been a tremendous increase of international travelers to a Hawaii, an increase of more than a million visitors in the last six years.
International visitors, he said, spend two to three times what a typical visitor from North America might spend. As a result, international visitors can have a significant impact on the economy.
Honolulu International Airport is the fourth-busiest port of entry into the country, he also said, and there are times when that airport is at capacity.
“So clearly, Kona Airport being able to accept international flights really expands the capacity of the state of Hawaii to receive international visitors,” Ige said.
Aside from bringing tourists who came to visit the island, a couple Hawaii residents took the flight as an opportunity to come home from working abroad.
Maui resident Daniel Murayama-Nakama, 30, is flying home for the first time in four and a half years. He works in human resources in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
“It’s just by chance I happened to get on this flight,” Murayama-Nakama said Wednesday.
Even though the new route still requires him to make a second flight to get home, he said he’s still glad the new route’s available, calling the Big Island “a great place to visit.”
“It’s great they’re opening up the island for tourists,” he said. “I hope they do the same for Maui.”
And the flights will carry more than just passengers between Kona and Tokyo. Kahaloa said the new route gives local entrepreneurs direct access to a whole new market to sell their goods.
Before this flight opened, she said, goods needed to pass through Honolulu before going on to any international destinations, a process that cost time and money.
Kahaloa referred to local products like Big Island Abalone and Big Island Bees as companies with a chance to expand their businesses, which have the potential to grow more jobs and draw more money to the island.
That’s not to mention businesses that haven’t even started yet but will grow to take advantage of export opportunities.
“It is really a huge impact to the community,” she said.
Ige said the government is “absolutely” working to continue finding routes to Kona. He’s also been working to have preclearance for Narita International Airport.
Preclearance puts customs personnel overseas to inspect travelers before boarding flights bound for the United States, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There are currently 15 preclearance locations in six countries, according to the agency.
If that becomes a reality, Ige said, it would be the first Asian airport to be approved for preclearance and would allow for direct flights from that airport to any of the islands.
“There is other interest by other airlines,” he said about the potential for growth. “I have been, on my visits to Japan, Korea and China, made them aware that we are working to establish Kona as an international port of entry.”