HONOLULU – December 11, 2011 - Hawaiian Airlines, which this week will become the only carrier to operate daily flights on the Sydney-Honolulu route, today announced a further upgrade to its service with the introduction of its new and larger Airbus A330-200 aircraft in May 2012.
As previously announced, Hawaiian will increase from five flights per week to daily service on the Sydney-Honolulu route starting this Wednesday, December 14, using its current wide-body, twin-aisle Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, immediately boosting its available seats by 40 percent and adding approximately 12,000 seats on the route between now and the transition to new A330 aircraft.
The larger wide-body, twin-aisle A330s, which seat 294 passengers in a two-class cabin, 30 more than the B767s, will further increase Hawaiian’s Sydney-Honolulu seat capacity by 11 percent per flight, or nearly 11,000 seats annually – the equivalent of 41 additional B767 flights.
Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian’s president and CEO, said, “This week we will be providing Australian travelers with more seats to book their flights to Hawaii by going daily with our Sydney-Honolulu service, and within a few months we’ll add more seat capacity and enhanced onboard amenities with our fleet of new A330 aircraft.”
In addition to more seats and a larger cabin, Hawaiian’s A330 aircraft features an on-demand entertainment system with an LCD touch-screen monitor in each seatback and a wide array of movies, TV programs, and video games.
Hawaiian currently has five A330s in service and will add four more A330s by mid-2012, enabling the airline to upgrade its service on the Sydney-Honolulu route, and to launch new services including daily, nonstop flights between Honolulu and New York City, which begins June 4, 2012.
Hawaiian’s award-winning “Hawaii Flies With Us” inflight service program engages customers with an authentic presentation that showcases the culture, people, natural beauty, and legendary Aloha Spirit of the islands throughout the flight.
Starting December 14, Flight #451 will depart Honolulu daily at 11:50 a.m. and arrive in Sydney at 7:20 p.m. the following day. The return Flight #452 will depart Sydney daily at 9:20 p.m. and arrive in Honolulu at 10:10 a.m. the same day. (Sydney is 21 hours ahead of Honolulu and the flight crosses the International Dateline.)
Hawaiian has a strong commercial partnership with Virgin Australia, enabling passengers from around Australia to connect in Sydney with Hawaiian’s flight to Honolulu. The airline also operates a daily average of 150 flights between Honolulu and Hawaii’s Neighbor Islands, offering Australian travelers numerous opportunities to make connections to Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii Island.
About Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian has led all U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past seven years (2004-2010) as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In addition, consumer surveys by Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and Zagat have all ranked Hawaiian the top domestic airline offering flights to Hawaii. Hawaiian was also the nation’s highest-ranked carrier for service quality and performance in the prestigious Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study for 2008 and 2009.
Now in its 83rd year of continuous service in Hawaii, Hawaiian is the largest provider of passenger air service to Hawaii from the state’s primary visitor markets on the U.S. mainland. Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from more U.S. gateway cities (10) than any other airline, as well as service to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, American Samoa, and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides approximately 150 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HA). Additional information is available at HawaiianAirlines.com. Follow updates on Twitter about Hawaiian (@HawaiianAir) and its special fare offers (@HawaiianFares), and become a fan on its Facebook page (Hawaiian Airlines).
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