JAL restarting service to Kona

[macuu222]

Japan Airlines announced service from Toyko to Kona starting in September. And Hawaiian is already flying from Kona to Toyko. Wondering if the market here can accommodate 2 daily nonstops? Guess we'll find out soon enough. In the mean time, competition should make airfares from Kona to Japan quite reasonable!


http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-ne...ights-kona

[Chunkster]

JAL seems to be opportunistically piggybacking on Hawaiian's successful efforts to get border control facilities restored at KOA. It will be interesting to see if both services persist long run. JAL naturally has a bigger customer base in Japan, but Hawaiian has the advantage of flying into Haneda, an airport many Tokyo residents prefer over Narita. Fare competition should indeed keep things reasonable.

[terracore]

The HNL customs facility is at capacity and KOA has been designated the alternate. New routes will be coming to KOA. The state is spending 75 million dollars to replace KOA with something that (hopefully) won't be rated consistently in the "10 worst airports in the country" list.

http://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2017/03/22/...t-keahole/

Meanwhile, ~70 miles away, sits a nearly empty airport that was designed and built to be the second gateway into Hawaii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilo_Inter...tilization

[terracore]

Sending international travelers to KOA to clear customs- and then having them continue on to HNL is an interesting profit grab on the part of a certain airline. Passengers on foreign carriers will have no choice but to add to Hawaiian's coffers.

[Durian Fiend]

quote:

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Originally posted by terracore

The HNL customs facility is at capacity and KOA has been designated the alternate. New routes will be coming to KOA. The state is spending 75 million dollars to replace KOA with something that (hopefully) won't be rated consistently in the "10 worst airports in the country" list.

http://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2017/03/22/...t-keahole/

Meanwhile, ~70 miles away, sits a nearly empty airport that was designed and built to be the second gateway into Hawaii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilo_Inter...tilization

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Interesting. Why not Maui? Their airport seems up to the task while Kona, despite it's appealing outdoor gates, does not impress.

[Aaron S]

The 75 million dollar airport improvement that is ongoing at KOA is slated to consolidate the domestic arrival/departure areas into one terminal. There is plans to replace the temporary FIS facility for Int'l arrivals/departures, but there is no funding source for this project yet.

The runaway on Maui isn't long enough to accommodate a fully loaded jumbo jet from a overseas destination. There is weigh restrictions imposed on any of these departures. There was plans to lengthen the runway, but there was strong opposition against this.

[kalakoa]

~70 miles away, sits a nearly empty airport

There's no four-star hotel, so the airport doesn't really count.

[leilanidude]

Sending international travelers to KOA to clear customs- and then having them continue on to HNL is an interesting profit grab on the part of a certain airline. Passengers on foreign carriers will have no choice but to add to Hawaiian's coffers.
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terracore - I didn't get that out of the article? I would assume people wanting to go to Honolulu would just fly there to begin with, not to KOA first? Plus, they say the 2 terminals are being reconfigured as one so as to allow pass-thru instead of leaving the secured area and going thru security again, just like other large airports.

[Tink]

For some reason they love the Hilton Waikoloa resort ( perhaps the "Disneyland" like theme?) , the Hapuna Prince Hotel, and US real estate is the reason why to KOA?

Community begins with Aloha

[terracore]

"I would assume people wanting to go to Honolulu would just fly there to begin with, not to KOA first"

The HNL customs is at capacity, as flights are added to Hawaii many of them will be going to KOA, even if the traveler's destination is HNL. As it is now many of the Haneda-KOA passenger's destination is HNL. So they get to buy RT airfare from KOA to HNL along with their airfare from Japan.