Whereas Hawaiian Airways has in depth service all through the South Pacific, the airline can be launching a brand new route in 2023 that I discover to be fairly intriguing…
Hawaiian Airways’ Honolulu to Prepare dinner Islands flight
As of Might 20, 2023, Hawaiian Airways will launch a brand new as soon as weekly flight between Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL), and Rarotonga, Prepare dinner Islands (RAR). The flight will function with the next schedule:
HA495 Honolulu to Rarotonga departing 4:00PM arriving 10:25PM
HA496 Rarotonga to Honolulu departing 11:35PM arriving 5:50AM (+1 day)
The two,956-mile flight is blocked at 6hr25min from Honolulu, and 6hr15min to Honolulu. The outbound flight will function on Saturdays, whereas the return flight will function on Sundays (arriving on Mondays).
Whereas the plane utilization right here isn’t good in any respect, presumably that is in order that the crew can have a 24-hour relaxation interval previous to returning to Honolulu, slightly than having to spend a one week layover in Rarotonga.
Hawaiian Airways will use an Airbus A321neo for the route, that includes 189 seats. This consists of 16 enterprise class seats, 44 additional legroom economic system seats, and 129 economic system class seats.
Tickets for the brand new route are anticipated to go on sale as of December 7, 2022.
This would be the Prepare dinner Islands’ hyperlink to the USA
Till the beginning of the pandemic, Air New Zealand operated a nonstop flight between Rarotonga and Los Angeles utilizing a Boeing 777. This was a fifth freedom flight, as you may fly from Auckland to Los Angeles through Rarotonga. Sadly that route hasn’t operated because the begin of the pandemic, and there aren’t any indicators of it returning.
At the moment Rarotonga Airport solely has service to Auckland (on Air New Zealand and Jetstar), to Papeete (on Air Tahiti), after which Air Rarotonga has flights to some neighboring islands.
So the nonstop flight to Honolulu would be the solely hyperlink to the USA, and also will supply the simplest connections to the US mainland, as passengers can join to fifteen mainland gateway cities in Honolulu.
Hawaiian Airways beforehand flew to the Prepare dinner Islands between 1987 and 1993, so this would be the first time in 30 years that the airline operates this route.
Right here’s how Hawaiian Airways CEO Peter Ingram describes this route:
“We’re delighted to develop our South Pacific community by providing our visitors entry to the Prepare dinner Islands, an archipelago that shares Hawai‘i’s Polynesian roots and pure magnificence. This service enormously expands journey alternatives between the Prepare dinner Islands and the USA, because of our well-timed connections and sturdy community, together with service between Hawai‘i and eight California cities.”
In the meantime Prepare dinner Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has confused the significance of this path to the tourism sector:
“As a 93-year-old vacation spot airline dedicated to sustainability, Hawaiian Airways is an ideal associate for the Prepare dinner Islands. We welcome this well timed announcement from Hawaiian Airways, as we glance to rebuild our tourism business and strengthen entry to our northern hemisphere markets. Inbound tourism is a key financial driver for our nation, and to achieve our potential we want entry from the bigger worldwide markets. Hawaiian’s Honolulu-Rarotonga service connects us to Los Angeles, the Pacific Northwest, and lots of different massive U.S. Mainland cities.”
I’d assume Hawaiian Airways is getting some important assist from the Prepare dinner Islands, definitely when it comes to airport charges, and perhaps much more.
I’ve lengthy been intrigued by the Prepare dinner Islands, so it’s cool to see a extra direct hyperlink to get there from the USA. The islands look beautiful, although based mostly on my temporary analysis, I feel the resort state of affairs leaves a bit to be desired (although maybe that’s additionally a part of the appeal of the Prepare dinner Islands).
Backside line
As of Might 2023, Hawaiian Airways can be including the Prepare dinner Islands to its community, because the airline will launch as soon as weekly flights to Rarotonga. That is the primary time in 30 years that the airline has operated this route, and will probably be the one nonstop hyperlink to the USA since Air New Zealand suspended its Rarotonga to Los Angeles flight.
What do you make of this route? Has anybody been to the Prepare dinner Islands, and if that’s the case, was it value a go to?
