Well here are some cool new airline routes…
In this post:
New Hawaiian Airlines routes to the mainland
Hawaiian Airlines has just announced four new routes to the US mainland, two of which I find to be particularly noteworthy. This all comes a couple of months after Hawaii reopened to visitors from the mainland without quarantine, in conjunction with pre-travel testing.
Obviously airlines are having to completely rework their route networks, given how demand has shifted, both due to travel restrictions and due to the type of people traveling. While Hawaiian Airlines previously had a huge international route network, that has almost entirely been suspended for the time being.
Hawaiian Airlines’ new routes to the mainland
Here are the new routes, roughly in the order that I find them to be interesting:
Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu to Orlando route
As of March 11, 2021, Hawaiian Airlines will launch 2x weekly flights between Honolulu and Orlando, using an Airbus A330, with the following schedule:
HA86 Honolulu to Orlando departing 5:15PM arriving 7:00AM (+1 day) [Thu, Sun]
HA85 Orlando to Honolulu departing 8:15AM arriving 2:05PM [Tue, Sat]
At 4,757 miles, this represents Hawaiian Airlines’ third longest domestic route, after its flights to Boston and New York. This flight is blocked at 8hr45min eastbound and 10hr45min westbound.
Hawaiian Airlines’ A330 first class
Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu to Austin route
As of April 21, 2021, Hawaiian Airlines will launch 2x weekly flights between Honolulu and Austin, using an Airbus A330, with the following schedule:
HA82 Honolulu to Austin departing 10:00AM arriving 10:10PM [Wed, Sat]
HA81 Austin to Honolulu departing 10:10AM arriving 1:30PM [Thu, Sun]
This 3,772 mile flight is blocked at 7hr10in eastbound and 8hr20min westbound.
Interestingly this is also Hawaiian Airlines’ only route to Texas, presumably since Dallas and Houston have Hawaii flights pretty well covered by American and United, respectively.
Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu to Ontario route
As of March 16, 2021, Hawaiian Airlines will launch 5x weekly flights between Honolulu and Ontario, using an Airbus A321neo, with the following schedule:
HA74 Honolulu to Ontario departing 1:05PM arriving 9:35PM [Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun]
HA73 Ontario to Honolulu departing 9:05AM arriving 12:20PM [Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun]
This 2,602 mile flight is blocked at 5hr30min eastbound and 6hr15min westbound.
This represents Hawaiian Airlines’ fourth destination in SoCal, as the airline also flies to Long Beach (LGB), Los Angeles (LAX), and San Diego (SAN).
Hawaiian Airlines’ A321neo
Hawaiian Airlines’ Maui to Long Beach route
As of March 9, 2021, Hawaiian Airlines will launch daily flights between Maui and Long Beach, using an Airbus A321neo, with the following schedule:
HA72 Maui to Long Beach departing 12:45PM arriving 8:05PM
HA71 Long Beach to Maui departing 8:35AM arriving 12:35PM
This 2,498 mile flight is blocked at 5hr20min eastbound and 6hr westbound.
Hawaiian Airlines already flies from Honolulu to Long Beach, so this is the second route out of the airport for the airline.
Hawaiian Airlines’ A321neo first class
Aircraft utilization isn’t a priority here
This ultimately isn’t surprising, but it’s interesting to note that aircraft utilization clearly isn’t a priority here. All of these routes are designed so that the same crew flies the plane there and back.
For example, in the case of the Orlando flights, the plane is on the ground in Orlando for about 25 hours, while for the other routes the plane is on the ground for roughly 12 hours.
What does this tell us?
- I’d guess the airline got some good deals from airports on parking, since there aren’t many airlines adding service nowadays
- Hawaiian clearly has excess planes right now due to the pandemic, so there’s not much opportunity cost to having planes parked for a while
- At that point you might as well save on crewing costs, and in the case of the Orlando flight, have crews on the ground for a day, rather than for three to four days
Redeem miles on Hawaiian Airlines
If you want to redeem miles for these flights, award availability is pretty readily available.
For example, I see two first class award seats on these routes on many dates, including out of Orlando and Austin. First class awards on those long routes start at 40,000 miles one-way, which is quite a good deal.
You’ll have to book through Hawaiian Airlines’ HawaiianMiles program, and the best way to acquire those miles is by transferring them from Amex Membership Rewards.
Bottom line
Hawaiian Airlines has announced four new routes to the mainland, including three routes to airports the airline didn’t previously serve, and one new route to an existing airport.
I find the new flights to Florida and Texas to be particularly interesting, since these aren’t markets that the airline previously served.
What do you make of Hawaiian Airlines’ new routes to the mainland?
HNL-MCO is the Aulani Express, just like the LAX-MCO is labeled as the Disneyland Express.
Orlando actually isnt surprising if you live here. The composition of Orlando has actually changed a lot in the past few years and is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. I moved here three years ago from NY, and we have a lot of professionals who have relocated from the northeast. Mostly medical in my neck of the woods. A third terminal was added to the airport recently to be able to...
Orlando actually isnt surprising if you live here. The composition of Orlando has actually changed a lot in the past few years and is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. I moved here three years ago from NY, and we have a lot of professionals who have relocated from the northeast. Mostly medical in my neck of the woods. A third terminal was added to the airport recently to be able to add more flights both for those coming to Disney and for those of us wanting to travel out of Orlando.
I think this will be a perfect route for Japanese/Chinese tourists going to Orlando before the situation we were in you would see them in abundance I believe Chinese and Japanese were #2 and #3 tourist groups to Orlando outside of us. with MCO being my home airport this is great its 14+ hours with layovers to HNL this is welcome news. Who would not want a layover in Honolulu vs say somewhere else?
I would venture to guess the MCO route is far more about bringing visitors from Hawaii or points further east to Disney World than it is about Floridians vacationing in Hawaii.
Yes there is Disney in California, but many of my LA friends fly to MCO specifically for Disney's vastly larger scope of entertainment there.
OMG I'm freaking out you guys
I used to live Orlando and disposable income isn’t something a lot of families have. Wages are very low and main industry is tourism. I don’t see many families being able to afford Hawaiian vacations. Plus the Caribbean is only 2 hour flight and 1/3 of the cost. I personally prefer the Caribbean any day over Hawaii. Better beaches, better weather, better entertainment and turquoise water. I don’t see this route lasting. Hell I would...
I used to live Orlando and disposable income isn’t something a lot of families have. Wages are very low and main industry is tourism. I don’t see many families being able to afford Hawaiian vacations. Plus the Caribbean is only 2 hour flight and 1/3 of the cost. I personally prefer the Caribbean any day over Hawaii. Better beaches, better weather, better entertainment and turquoise water. I don’t see this route lasting. Hell I would even take Cancun over Honolulu. Yeah I said.
As someone who's home airport is MCO this is excellent news, especially since we are planning to head to HNL for New Years next year.
We really have crap for direct flights outside the continental US, so I'll take whatever we can get!
The Ontario and Long Beach routes make sense, though their success, or even launch, like the rest, will depend on the pandemic. AUS makes sense and at twice a week, it's relatively low risk to a fast growing metropolitan area and the demand is likely there and a great option to avoid having to connect via DFW or IAH. MCO makes no sense.
About MCO.... It does allow for an interesting vacation for folks coming from Asia or South America......
It’s possible that Hawaiian’s might want to visit Florida but they don’t have any Covid regulations in place, ridiculous.
They don’t wear masks down there, no social distancing, nothing.
Hawaii will need to continue strict measures especially as Covid will now be coming in from Florida. Deathsantis as they say
Can you redeem Hawaiian miles with a connection on a US48 airline like American jetblue or United?
Let’s say HNL to MCO to NYC?
Unrelated, but just got email on Marriott targeted offer (Earn one free night at 35,000 pt or less property for each of my 1st and 2nd stays by March 31).
Not sure if this is widespread or not, but much better than other recent promos I've gotten from them.
United has a big hangar at MCO where they've traditionally worked on 757s and 767s. Perhaps they have a maintenance agreement there?
I'm interested in flying Hawaiian using JetBlue miles in 2022. Using the JetBlue award chart, I wonder if Austin will count as a West Coast or East Coast origination point.
@Lucky - what dates are you seeing 40,000 in first from MCO?
@sharon, is there an angle that Hawaii locals might want to go to Orlando, vs the other way around? I know there's parks in LA as well but... i think at least some people believe Florida is the best.
HA used to fly to Ontario
The 12 hour ground times are standard for most Hawaiian Airlines flights. Almost all of their Hawaii-West Coast flights have aircraft sit on the ground at the west coast stations overnight so that they can fly at the optimal times for vacationers to Hawaii. (They have almost no long-haul aircraft overnight in HNL.)
That said, I don't know what's going on in Orlando. It almost looks like there is an error in the days of week planned for in that schedule.
Great news for Austin-Bergstrom. Pre-COVID, AUS had just finished a 2019 terminal expansion, and during the summer of 2020 we were expected to have BA, LH, KLM, and Norwegian (LGW, CDG) running transatlantic flights. Good to see more service announced from Central Texas!
These are very interesting additions. I understand the California additions, especially using the 321. California's will be looking to travel domestically as it is safer than internationally with pandemic conditions of travel.
Austin route- okay this makes some sense given international travel is depressed and Austin is a growing city quickly filling up with 20 and 30-year-olds, working in the rapidly developing tech industry who are eager to travel. As we have seen KLM...
These are very interesting additions. I understand the California additions, especially using the 321. California's will be looking to travel domestically as it is safer than internationally with pandemic conditions of travel.
Austin route- okay this makes some sense given international travel is depressed and Austin is a growing city quickly filling up with 20 and 30-year-olds, working in the rapidly developing tech industry who are eager to travel. As we have seen KLM and Lufthansa reduce or eliminate service momentarily this makes sense. They can't go and sit in Mykonos or Paris this summer.
Orlando. Very confusing IMO>> Orlando is not a wealthy city so I do not expect much demand between MCO and HNL. So who is this route intended for?
It seems that it would have been smarter to fly to DC or Miami, but Orlando...well okay odd choice