The first JAL flight to Kona's Keahole Airport from Tokyo's Narita International Airport is scheduled to land at Keahole at 9:10 a.m. Sunday. Federal customs and immigration officials have set up facilities in tents at the airport to process the arriving foreign passengers.
Big Island Mayor Stephen Yamashiro is scheduled to be aboard the flight. Yamashiro is to fly to Tokyo on Thursday and meet with airline officials there to promote the Big Island as a tourist destination before joining the JAL flight home.
D.W. "Whitey" Rose, representing the Big Island chapter of the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, will accompany Yamashiro.
JAL had intended to begin the Kona service April 1. However, it became embroiled in an international dispute over aviation rights. United Airlines pushed the U.S. Department of Transportation to withhold approval until the Japanese government gave United an approval it was seeking.
United said it was entitled under existing agreements to launch a service from Osaka's Kansai Airport to Seoul, carrying Japanese passengers to Southeast Asia and bringing travelers from that area to Japan and on to the United States.
In a temporary resolution of the dispute, Japan approved United's Osaka-Seoul connection and an additional Los Angeles-Tokyo service in return for U.S. approval of JAL's Tokyo-Kona route. The approvals are good through October, by which time the two countries expect to be in negotiations over a new bilateral passenger aviation pact.
JAL will fly a Boeing 747 on the Kona route, carrying up to 404 passengers, arriving at Keahole Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays and departing for Narita an hour and 40 minutes later.
The inaugural flight will be met by Hawaiian entertainers and a delegation with leis and gifts for the passengers. County and HVB officials have estimated that the 1,000-plus passengers that JAL will bring to Kona each week will inject some $7 million a week into the Big Island's economy.