Hawaiian Air links up
with Continental

The local carrier signs another
marketing deal with a major airline

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Starting Oct. 1, Hawaiian Airlines Inc. will have access to the customer base of Continental Airlines Inc. and Continental Micronesia to boost its interisland business.

Hawaiian today announced a marketing alliance in which Continental and its Continental Micronesia unit will promote visitor travel to the neighbor islands and make Hawaiian their primary interisland carrier.

Passengers on the two international airlines will be able to check themselves and their luggage once at their point of origin for the whole trip through to their neighbor island destination. They'll also be able to use the flights within Hawaii to add miles to their Continental frequent-flyer plan.

The arrangement is similar to one Hawaiian made with American Airlines earlier this month. The only difference is that Continental and Hawaiian will continue to use their own flight codes on their segments of the connected flights while the deal with American includes code-sharing, which means one computer-reservation code for the whole journey.

Paul J. Casey, Hawaiian Air's president and chief executive officer, said the deal with Continental "comes with little cost to the company and significantly expands our reach into domestic and international markets."

Casey said the deal aligns Hawaiian with the nation's fifth-largest airline which has a major Asia-Pacific presence.

Continental has four Honolulu flights a day from the West Coast and tomorrow launches a nonstop Houston-Honolulu service. Continental Micronesia flies daily to Honolulu from Tokyo and Guam. Continental serves 133 domestic and 62 foreign destinations.

In addition to the arrangements with Continental and American, Hawaiian has a code-sharing arrangement with Northwest Airlines.