Hawaiian Airlines Launches America’s Longest Domestic Route from Boston
New route will serve growing demand from the east coast for non-stop service to the warm Pacific islands
Photo: Courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines
With a big Aloha! Hawaiian Airlines launched service from Boston to Honolulu Friday and HA #90 made history as the country’s longest interstate route, traveling between Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). Hawaiian’s newest nonstop route opens a rainbow of possibilities to the U.S. northeast region thawing out from another winter. It also gives Hawaii residents convenient access to more of the East Coast.
Prior to today, Boston was the largest U.S. market without nonstop service to Hawaii with some 250 people flying between eastern New England and the islands each way on any given day. Boston’s renowned educational and medical facilities are among the many attractions drawing Hawaii travelers to the Bay State. The route generated about $79 million in ticket sales last year.
Last year, about 127,000 people from New England – more than half of them from Massachusetts — visited Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
In addition to vacations, the route opens economic and cultural opportunities. The seafood industry, important in both states, will benefit. On board inaugural Flight HA89 as it departed Boston for Hawaii, nearly one-and-a-half tons of live lobster went along for the ride. Hawaiian fish and produce will also be regularly flown to New England.
Guests traveling from the East Coast to Hawaii’s shores will travel on Hawaiian’s 278-seat Airbus A330 widebody aircraft, with 18 lie-flat seats in the front cabin sectioned in a 2-2-2 configuration. Each A330 has 68 Extra Comfort seats in the main cabin with 36-inch pitch.
Hawaiian’s Executive Chef Lee Anne Wong, owner of Honolulu’s Koko Head Café, is overseeing the culinary service with two meals offered in each direction.
The flights leaving Boston will arrive in Hawaii the same day in the early afternoon allowing guests time to settle into their accommodations and unwind with a Hawaiian sunset, or connect to Kaua’i, Maui or the Island of Hawaii via Hawaii’s airline’s schedule of some 170 daily interisland jet flights. The reverse direction has passengers leaving in early afternoon and arriving in Boston at 5:50 am.
For JetBlue fans, Hawaiian’s expanded codeshare with Boston’s largest airline lets customers earn and redeem TrueBlue points on Hawaiian flights. The relationship also opens a choice of new cities with connections through Boston, including Washington, D.C. (DCA), Pittsburgh (PIT), Philadelphia (PHL), Baltimore (BWI), Cleveland (CLE), and Detroit(DTW), all of which currently cannot connect to Hawaii through JetBlue in New York.
