September 23, 2004
Hawaiian Airlines will apply for rights to fly directly to Shanghai four times a week.
The airline will file its application next week with the U.S. Department of Transportation to obtain landing rights for the route. If successful, it would start flying in 2006.
It would mark the first time that Hawaii and mainland China would be connected by a direct flight.
The proposal, which comes a month after Hawaii opened its first official state tourism office in Beijing, would give a boost to Hawaii's efforts to lure some of the millions of Chinese who can afford international trips due to the country's economic boom.
It also would give Hawaii tourism officials more ammunition to pursue the elusive "approved destination" status from the Chinese government. Such a status would make travel from China to Hawaii easier and allow local tourism operators to work with their counterparts in China.
Last year, 25,443 Chinese visitors came to Hawaii. Of them, seven out of 10 came through the U.S. mainland and the rest through Taiwan, Japan or Korea.
The Chinese connection would fit well with Hawaiian's strategy to fly to more long-haul destinations, said Keoni Wagner, Hawaiian's spokesman.
The company's first flights beyond Hawaii started in July 1985 with service to the West Coast.
Since the airline replaced its fleet with Boeing 767 aircraft in 2000 it has been scouring for destinations in the Pacific Rim and Asia.
Hawaiian, which began flying to Australia earlier this year, wants to have three such routes in place before 2007. By then, the routes would contribute 15 percent of the airline's $838 million revenue.
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