Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Hawaii should see more tourists thanks to the Japanese government's decision, confirmed today, to allow night-departure international charter flights from Tokyo's closest airport, Haneda. Haneda night charters
to isles win approvalFrom staff and wire reports
Although full flight schedules were not immediately available, both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said they will use the opportunity to add flights to Hawaii.
The new services will start Feb. 16 and end in late April, unless the government approves more flights. On the first night, JAL will fly one charter to Honolulu.
ANA said it had not received schedule information early today but expected the service would be a lot more limited than its original "wish list" of six Haneda-Honolulu flights in February and as many as 50 this year.
Haneda's international terminal is small, used mostly for three China Airlines flights a day, and does not have the customs and immigration facilities to handle a big increase, said an ANA spokesman, Tom Fredo in New York.
Japan Air System, Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines also won flights out of Haneda but no information was available on whether Hawaii figures in their plans. Most of the charters are expected to go to points closer to Japan, such as Korea and China.
After Feb 16, each airline will be allowed a maximum of two flights a week through April.
Japan agreed to open Haneda, a domestic airport about 15 minutes from Tokyo, to a few overseas-bound tourist charters to ease pressure on the single runway at Narita International Airport, about an hour out of Tokyo.