Tālofa lava! Hawaiian Airlines is celebrating 40 years of flying between Hawaiʻi and American Samoa!
On Oct. 24, 1984, Hawaiian inaugurated flights between Honolulu and Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa with Douglas DC-8 aircraft, starting its long relationship with the U.S. territory. The route also marked an important milestone in Hawaiian Airlines history as it became the company’s first regularly scheduled, nonstop transpacific passenger service – preceding its flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles that launched the following year.
Today, Hawaiian is the only major airline connecting American Samoa's people with Hawaiʻi and the continental United States via its Honolulu service, which operates twice weekly with widebody Airbus A330 aircraft.
"It is fitting that our service to American Samoa, our Pacific Island neighbor, would be a precursor to Hawaiian’s expansion to dozens of destinations across Oceania and Asia, in addition to the U.S. continent,” Hawaiian Airlines CEO Joe Sprague told guests and employees celebrating the milestone before last Thursday's departure of flight HA465 from Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
Drawing parallels between Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines' distinct but common 90-plus year histories connecting remote communities, Sprague added, "Both companies appreciate and understand very well how vital it is to have reliable air service between America Samoa, the state of Hawaiʻi and destinations like Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and now many others. That’s one of the reasons we are so excited about our combination with Alaska Airlines – because it significantly expands the number of U.S cities and beyond that our guests can access, including places like Washington D.C, Florida and Nashville, Costa Rica, Mexico and many others."
Sprague later joined the carrier's community and cultural relations team on HA465 to visit American Samoa, connect with local employees, nonprofit leaders, community members, government officials and small businesses, and listen to feedback about the carrier's essential role in the community.
While on the ground, forty Team Kōkua employee volunteers from throughout the Pacific also came together on the shores of Pago Pago's Lion's Park for a morning of giving. The gathering supported American Samoa Community Colleges' Land Grant programs and Finafinau, a nonprofit organization engaging youth in environmental advocacy and climate action. Hawaiian worked alongside local students to plant dozens of native trees and pick up rubbish and marine debris along the shoreline.
