Hawaiian Airways marked practically a centenary within the air Monday, recreating its first-ever flight from Honolulu to Hilo by way of Kahului.
The provider operated flight HA1111 from Honolulu (HNL) to Kahului (OGG) on Maui and on to Hilo (ITO) to mark the anniversary of its first flight as Inter-Island Airways on Nov. 11, 1929. The journey took 1 hour and 52 minutes — together with a 36 minute cease in Kahului — on a Boeing 717-200 Monday, in response to Hawaiian’s web site.
The identical flight took Inter-Island Airways three hours, 15 minutes on a Sikorsky S‑38 airplane 90 years in the past.
“The foresight of our founder Stanley Kennedy to introduce Hawaii to industrial aviation without end modified the best way we journey throughout our archipelago for leisure and enterprise,” Hawaiian CEO Peter Ingram stated in an announcement. “Right this moment we honor Stan’s legacy and be part of with our workers to say ‘mahalo nui loa’ to our neighborhood and our friends.”
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Hawaiian Airways precursor Inter-Island Airways started scheduled passenger flights with Sikorsky S‑38 plane on Nov. 11, 1929. (Picture courtesy of Hawaiian Airways)
Hawaiian started life in its namesake state as a solely inter-island provider. It added constitution routes to the South Pacific within the early 1980s, and launched its first nonstop flights to the U.S. mainland with Lockheed L-1011s in 1985, in response to its web site.
The L-1011s have been changed with McDonnell Douglas DC-10s in 1994, after which by Boeing 767-300ERs in 2002. The 767s have been supplemented with Airbus A330-200s in 2010, after which retired this January.
A Hawaiian Airbus A330 at New York JFK. (Picture by Alberto Riva/TPG)
Regardless of two Chapter 11 reorganizations within the 1990s and 2000s, Hawaiian has continued to broaden. Flights to Australia started with Sydney (SYD) becoming a member of the community in 2004, and to Asia with Manila (MNL) starting in 2008, in response to Cirium schedule information.
Right this moment, Hawaiian serves 14 locations on the U.S. mainland, and 10 in Asia-Pacific together with new flights to Fukuoka (FUK) in Japan that start on Nov. 26.
Associated: Hawaiian opens ticket gross sales for brand new flight to Tokyo Haneda
Hawaiian is the biggest provider to Hawaii with a 23% share of seats this yr, in response to Cirium schedules. It’s second solely to United Airways in its share of seats between the islands and the mainland U.S.
And Hawaiian continues to dominate inter-island flying, prefer it did 90 years in the past. Regardless of the splashy entrance of Southwest Airways into the market in Might, Hawaiian is scheduled to fly practically 78% of the 5.four million seats out there throughout the six months ending in Might. Southwest, which has solely printed schedules by way of June 6, is because of fly 19% of inter-island seats.
The airline continues to look in the direction of the longer term with new Airbus A321neos opening new routes to the U.S. West Coast. Boeing 787s start arriving in 2021 and can open new long-haul community alternatives, together with presumably to the Midwest.
Associated: Hawaiian might fill Midwestern ‘void’ with Dreamliners
Hawaiian Airways CEO Peter Ingram (left) poses with cabin crew in retro uniforms for ceremonial flight on Nov. 11, 2019, that marked the provider’s 90th anniversary. (Picture courtesy of Hawaiian Airways)
Hawaiian Airways launched the Airbus A321neo in 2018. (Picture courtesy of Hawaiian Airways)
Featured picture courtesy of Hawaiian Airways.
Edward Russell
Is a Senior Airline Enterprise Reporter at The Factors Man. Edward joined the TPG group in June 2019 after seven years at FlightGlobal.
