Pleasant Hawaiian American Trans Air, which has had a lease relationship with Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays in mainland-Hawaii tourism for most of the past decade, is stepping up that relationship with new aircraft and new destinations, including its first California-Kauai direct service.
to up flights
American Trans Air, the tour
firm's charter carrier, will run
3 daily flights to the islandsBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comATA has handled flights from the West Coast and, more recently, nonstops from New York and Chicago, for Pleasant Hawaiian's packaged air-hotel-ground tours, but also sells individual tickets on the same flights, operating as a scheduled airline.
The airline said yesterday that as Boeing's first customer for the new Boeing 757-300 aircraft, it has assigned six of the planes to Pleasant Hawaiian. Starting in May, ATA will have three flights a day to Hawaii from San Francisco and three from Los Angeles. That is an increase from the former two flights a day from each city in the summer and one a day in winter.
Its West Coast-Maui service will switch from a stop in Honolulu to nonstop and it will introduce once-a-week San Francisco-Kauai and Los Angeles-Kauai service.
Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka expressed her gratitude to Ed Hogan, who founded Pleasant Hawaiian in the 1950s, a company that now brings some 400,000 mainlanders to Hawaii each year. "We are grateful to Ed Hogan for his confidence in Kauai. He confirms what we already know, that demand for Kauai remains strong and we can fill direct flights," Kusaka said. The direct Kauai connections begin June 1.
The new aircraft carry 243 passengers in what Indianapolis-headquartered ATA said is a mix of new comfort and new technology, including leather-covered seats for the passengers and advanced avionics for the crew.
Star-Bulletin reporter Anthony Sommer
contributed to this report.