Good news for the tourism industry

[rbakker]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...tions.html

"London - Honolulu (7,300 miles) via Los Angeles: 18 hours.
New time: 13 hours."

This makes Hawaii much more accessible to 300 million (still) relatively wealthy Europeans.

[macuu222]

That would be nice to go from Honolulu to Europe non-stop. I know I would love to fly it. But is there a market for it?

[Bullwinkle]

etops over the pole looks like a fifty percent fuel savings - cheaper tickets too an no brainer for Virgin Atlantic

Puts Hawaii in reach for many more guests.... hope they bring lots of cash .....a good thing imho

[TomK]

I heard about this a few days ago and direct flights between Hawaii and Europe would be a godsend for me personally as I travel to London quite regularly. It would half the travel time. However, there's something I don't quite follow.

As I understand it, ETOPS only applies to twin-engine jets. 4-engine jets aren't subject to ETOPS so if there were a market between Europe and Hawaii you'd think it would have already been exploited by many airlines (British Airways, Virgin, Lufthansa, KLM, Delta and United to name but a few). I suspect, unfortunately, there simply isn't a market for such a route.

Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/

[rbakker]

There's a few things wrong with that story (well, it is the Daily Mail) but I assume the gist is correct - there will be more flights over the North Pole. Maybe 4-engined planes are generally larger, thus have more passengers and therefore need to fly more popular routes. The efficient 2-engined planes would be ideal for this, though the passengers are unliekly to be treated to "stunning" views of mountains (as shown) near the North Pole!

Strange, I could've sworn I once flew Tokyo - Copenhagen over the North Pole in the 80s or 90s.

[TomK]

Glad you understand what the Daily Mail is all about! That picture of the mountains looks very similar to Greenland which I've flown over several times - in a twin-engined jet!

I believe there are already twin-engine flights that get very near to the North Pole as long as they are always within 3 hours of an appropriate airport in case of an emergency but I don't think this can include Hawaii-Europe (happy to be proved wrong). The flights that currently do the polar route tend to be the Asia-Europe routes which would put them onto the other side of the pole from a Hawaii-Europe route. Maybe when the Boeing 787 is in service with more airlines something might happen that'll affect Hawaii (smaller passenger load but very efficient) but I'd be very surprised if we see any changes here in the next few years. I hope I'm wrong although taking half the time to get to London might actually make the jet lag worse!


Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/

[rbakker]

Richard Branson says: 'Our new fleet of 787s could well be flying to Honolulu or even Fiji one day.’
Maybe Rob can put in a good word for Hawaii with Sir Richard.

I sleep poorly on planes so the shorter the flight the better - that's what causes my jetlag. I hope this will also open up flights over the Antarctic.

[mikewj]

Quote: "London - Honolulu (7,300 miles) via Los Angeles: 18 hours.
New time: 13 hours."
Maybe this includes time between planes, as for many years I traveled between LA - London and SF - London. Flying time to England 10 hours, return 11 hours. Either LA or SF to Honolulu 5 hours.
This would make London - Honolulu a total of 16 hours. Saving two hours is good, but not up to the claim put forward.
As I recall, British Air flew a "Polar Route" to London from the West Coast with their old 747 fleet, approaching London from the North over Scotland.

[beejee]

Great circle if you can get it.

Cheers!

[Bullwinkle]

4 engine aircraft do do polar routes today - but burn twice the fuel..... have done the 10 hr lax - ams once or twice a year be nice to skip the mainland ...... I use continental to lax then KLM to ams long layover however at lax outbound .... inbound works out very well