Hawaiian Airlines’ nonstop service between Boston and Honolulu was announced last month and will begin next April, but the decision came after years of researching various East Coast markets to determine the airline’s best – and most profitable – next route.
Brent Overbeek, senior vice president of revenue management and network planning at Hawaiian Airlines, said in a blog post on the airline’s website that Hawaiian spends three to five years researching before a new route’s official launch. The Boston discussion began in 2015, with various factors playing into whether the new service was in demand, and would be successful.
The airline analyzed the local market size, finding that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and Hawaii on any given day. In 2017, the market between Boston and Honolulu generated about $76 million in ticket sales.
The lack of nonstop service between Boston and Hawaii was also seen as a positive. The route, to be serviced five times a week starting April 4, will become the nation’s longest domestic flight at 5,095 miles. It beats the previous record holder: Hawaiian’s other East Coast flight of 4,983 miles between Honolulu and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
This was the biggest airline news to come out in recent weeks for the Hawaii market, according to Brad DiFiore, managing director of Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting…
