Japan Air System and All Nippon Airways say they are keen to start up Japan-Hawaii routes again and they hope that upcoming U.S.-Japan passenger aviation talks will open the doors for them.
"Of course we'd like to go back to Honolulu," said Yuko Kobayashi, a spokeswoman for JAS in Tokyo. "If it's possible, maybe next year," she said.
"We would love to go back to Hawaii," said ANA spokesman Toshio Nomura.
Both companies have listed Hawaii as one of their aims in recent announcements about their business plans.
They began flying here in 1991. ANA flew three flights a week from Nagoya to Honolulu under a scheduled-service agreement between Japan and the United States. JAS operated two Tokyo-Honolulu flights a week under a charter license.
Both found the service unprofitable in the end. ANA was up against Japan Airlines and Northwest Airlines, both flying daily Nagoya-Honolulu flights. JAS said it couldn't make it with just two flights a week but couldn't get more because of crowding at Tokyo's Narita Airport.
ANA dropped out in March 1993 and JAS quit the Hawaii market in May 1994.
ANA now says it wants to fly to Honolulu from Kansai Airport at Osaka. JAS had no details of what its intentions are beyond a general hope to get to Hawaii.
Paul Casey, Hawaii Visitors Bureau president, said he talked to executives of both airlines when he was in Japan in November and they both confirmed their interest in Hawaii as a destination.
"It is good news because what happens when airlines commit capacity is that they also commit marketing dollars," Casey said. He said ANA told him it would also promote Hawaii in its Southeast Asia markets, hoping to boost its business from there to Osaka by offering Hawaii as an additional destination.
"That, again, is good news because the potential in Southeast Asia (for Hawaii business) over the next 10-15 years is unlimited," Casey said.
JAS recently came out with a new business plan, part of which calls for increasing its international business.
The only foreign destinations it currently serves are Seoul and Guangzhou, China. JAS President Hiromi Funabiki said late last month that the Osaka-Guangzhou service, which began in October, has produced good results.
JAS says it is considering restarting dormant services to Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia in addition to Hawaii service.
JAS already has what could be seen as a touch of Hawaii. Its new MD-90 airliner went into service last month decorated with a rainbow design created by famous movie director Akira Kurosawa.
The airline also is running a competition for a new rainbow design for the Boeing 777s it will begin receiving in April.
ANA's Nomura said the airline must await the outcome of U.S.-Japan negotiations before it can firm up its plans for a Hawaii route. The airline already has service to Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., he said.
The new flights require approval by both the U.S. and Japanese governments. If JAS and ANA get what they want, their Hawaii flights will complement already expanding services by other airlines.
Japan Airlines, which already has 69 Japan-Honolulu flights a week, will add Kona service three times a week beginning June 2. It also recently won an extension of its three-a-week Sendai-Honolulu service.
United Airlines, which has nearly 60 flights a week between Hawaii and Japan, said it will use its newly authorized Seoul-Osaka service to boost business on its existing Osaka-Honolulu route.
Continental Airlines, through the Continental Micronesia subsidiary that serves its Asia-Pacific destinations, has applied for rights to double its Tokyo-Honolulu service to two flights a day and run four flights a week between Sendai and Honolulu.
Some of the additional services are under temporary authority as a result of recent short-term agreements between Japan and the United States.
Airline officials say temporary approvals usually become permanent.
Other new services will require new government agreements. U.S.-Japan negotiators are to meet June 3-4 in Tokyo to discuss a possible schedule and range of topics for new passenger aviation talks.