Hawaiian Airlines would start non-stop flights between Auckland and Honolulu three times a week from March 14, 2013, opening up terrific opportunities, Auckland airport general manager aeronautical commercial Glenn Wedlock said yesterday.
"This new service will not only help grow the attractive Hawaiian market across a number of islands, but also offers connections to a wide range of great city destinations in the mainland United States and New Zealand."
The New Zealand travel industry was likely to welcome more capacity and connections to Hawaii and the mainland US, he said.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said the airport company, which has a stake in Queenstown Airport, was working to a consistent business plan - turning to areas from which it could add value by attracting more visitors to New Zealand.
"It is not just about more planes landing but getting more visitors through the terminal. It feeds into all ports in New Zealand but Queenstown is an obvious destination because of the ownership stake.
Hawaiian would become the only US carrier to fly to New Zealand. While its primary target was the leisure market, the wide-body Boeing 767-300ER aircraft it would use for its New Zealand flights included 18 business class seats among their total 264 seats.
The service would add more than 40,000 seats each way annually between the two cities.
Mr Wedlock said all passengers flying on Hawaiian Airlines would be entitled to a free checked baggage allowance of two items, each weighing up to 32kg, "one of the most generous checked baggage allowances in the airline industry".
Hawaiian Airlines also flew to the Maui, Kauai and Hawaii islands and 11 destinations on the US mainland including Las Vegas, New York and San José.
Last month, Auckland Airport launched an inbound tourism programme aimed at Taiwan as a way to tap a potential additional 70 million tourism dollars.
China remained a key market for the company and travel from China remained strong.
