Aloha Air adds flights
to Kahului, mainland

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Aloha Airlines, which says the mainland-Hawaii business it started two years ago is doing well, will expand the service with three new mainland-Maui flights a day.

The airline is leasing three new Boeing 737-700 jets to handle the work, bringing Aloha's fleet of the extended-range 737s to 10 aircraft, double the level it had a year ago. Each aircraft carries 124 passengers, with 112 in coach and 12 in first class.

Aloha said it will start a daily flight from Phoenix to Kahului on July 2, stopping at Orange County on the way. On Nov. 1, it will begin daily non-stop service between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Kahului and on Feb. 1 it will start non-stop service between Burbank, Calif., and Maui.

Aloha began its mainland service in February 2000 with daily service between Oakland, Calif., and Honolulu. Now it also operates Oakland-Maui and Oakland-Kona each day and in May last year started daily service between John Wayne Airport in Orange County and both Honolulu and Maui.

Aloha is scheduled to start Burbank-Honolulu service June 1 and on June 15 it will start serving the Vancouver-Honolulu route.

Much of the expansion has taken place since the failure in March of negotiations that were intended to bring about a merger with competitor Hawaiian Airlines.

Hawaiian is also expanding. Flying to the mainland since the early 1980s, Hawaiian on June 7 will begin daily service between Honolulu and Ontario, Calif., near Los Angeles. On the same date it will start Sacramento-Honolulu service.

On March 15, the company began daily service between Seattle and Maui. Previously announced non-stop Hawaiian flights to Maui from San Francisco and Los Angeles will begin June 15 and Hawaiian will start daily non-stop Phoenix-Honolulu service Oct. 11.

That will result in Phoenix being marketed by two Hawaii-based airlines, Hawaiian flying to Honolulu and Aloha to Maui.