HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
In a good kick-off to a new tourism
year, Hawaii air capacity for the first quarter comes to 2,658,426 seats, up
9.4 percent from the first three months of 2012.
The scheduled seat count by the state shows substantial increases
to all islands and from all major regions that send visitors to Hawaii,
including 100 more flights from Japan, 100 more flights from Korea, and
hundreds to neighbor islands from the West Coast.
Winter will see 90 Hawaiian Airlines flights from New York JFK and
82 United Airlines flights from Washington Dulles. That's more than 43,000
seats in three months.
Maui gets almost 500,000 seats - the actual scheduled seat count
is 496,300 - for the first time ever. A decline in seats from LAX, still Maui's
single biggest source of visitor arrivals, is more than offset by an increase
from Oakland, while a decline from SFO is more than offset by an increase from
San Jose. Maui is also getting 10,000 more seats from Portland.
The Big Island will get 10,000 seats from LAX to Hilo but has lost
its SFO service to Hilo. However, seats to Kona are up 6.1 percent to almost
180,000 including more than 11,000 seats from Vancouver.
Kauai airlift is up more than 20 percent this winter to almost
160,000 seats with 8,000 new seats from Portland and substantial increases from
Oakland and San Jose.
The arrival of more seats is no guarantee that there will be more
visitors, yet in recent years it has seemed that "if you fly it, they will
come." Hawaii's recession began when a sixth of the state's air
connections were grounded by the nearly simultaneous closure of Aloha Airlines
and ATA Airlines in early 2008, and the current tourism boom has closely
tracked increases in airlift caused mainly by dramatic expansion by Hawaiian
Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
Other important developments in the state tourism rebound have
been United Airlines adding service to Hilo from LAX and to Honolulu from
Washington Dulles, the addition of several small routes from previously
unserved U.S. West cities by Allegiant Travel, and flights from Shanghai, which
brought more than 7,000 seats last winter but this winter will bring 12,000
seats.
Copyright 2013 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
