HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
Hawaiian Airlines
says it will launch service this summer to Sendai, its fifth destination in
Japan, and its tenth new route in three years.
"We are delighted to be bringing the
aloha of our island home to a region being rebuilt after massive devastation
two years ago," said CEO Mark Dunkerley in a statement.
Sendai is a metro area of 9 million people in
the quake and tsunami region of northern Honshu.
Flights begin June 25, which means this
service will actually begin before the previously-announced new service to
Taipei, which begins in July. By then Hawaiian will also have launched flights
to Auckland, New Zealand. Those begin March 13.
The plan is to turn existing service to
Sapporo into a "circle route," as follows: Flight HA 441 will depart
Honolulu International Airport on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 12:15
p.m., cross the international dateline, and arrive at Sendai Airport at 4:00
p.m. the following day. As Flight HA 442, the aircraft will then continue to
Sapporo's New Chitose Airport at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays,
arriving at New Chitose at 7:10 p.m. before departing to Honolulu at 9:10 p.m.,
crossing the international dateline, and arriving in Honolulu at 9:50 a.m. the
same day.
"We look forward to making visitors from
Tohoku feel as though they are in Hawaii from the moment they board our
flights," Dunkerley said.
Hawaiian
Airlines has hired hundreds of employees as it added routes, and is still
hiring.
