Hawaiian Airlines Will Fly To Austin & Orlando

Well here are some cool new airline routes…

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.

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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?