WHY IT RATES: Travelers on the East Coast are ready to fly back to Hawaii.—Donald Wood, Breaking News Senior Writer.
Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaii’s hometown carrier, will reinstate its long-awaited East Coast flying in December with twice-weekly nonstop service between Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and thrice-weekly service between HNL and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
At the same time, Hawaiian will resume daily nonstop service between HNL and Long Beach Airport (LGB), offering guests access to its entire 13-city U.S. mainland network. The state of Hawaii last week began exempting travelers from its 14-day quarantine with proof of a negative COVID-19 state-approved test within 72 hours of the final leg of departure.
Hawaiian will also bring back nonstop flights between Kauai’s Lihue Airport (LIH) and Los Angeles and Oakland, and between Maui’s Kahului Airport (OGG) and San Diego and San Francisco, utilizing its narrow-body Airbus A321neo aircraft.
“We’re pleased with increased demand for travel to Hawaii, and we’re excited to once again offer our East Coast guests the convenience of our nonstop flights as we welcome them to the islands with new health and safety measures,” said Brent Overbeek, senior vice president of revenue management and network planning at Hawaiian Airlines.
As a state of Hawaii trusted testing partner, Hawaiian is offering guests departing from any of its U.S. mainland gateway cities a mail-in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) saliva test online through Vault Health. The test kit, which is available for travelers of all ages including children, will be express mailed overnight to guests who will self-collect their sample with assistance from a testing supervisor in a video call. The kit is express shipped overnight to a lab, which will process and analyze the sample and provide travelers their results electronically within 24 hours of receiving the sample.
Hawaiian’s “Keeping you safe” enhanced cleaning includes frequent disinfecting of lobby areas, kiosks, and ticket counters, electrostatic aircraft cabin spraying, plexiglass barriers at staffed airport counters, and sanitizer wipe distribution to all guests. The carrier requires all guests to complete a health acknowledgement form during the check-in process indicating they are free of COVID-19 symptoms and will comply with the company’s updated mask policy for the entirety of their journey.
All travelers to Hawaii or flying between the islands must follow the state’s travel procedures and complete its online Safe Travels Hawaii form.
SOURCE: Hawaiian Airlines press release.
