Hawaiian to Upgrade Osaka to A330

US carrier Hawaiian Airlines has announced that it will increase capacity on the Honolulu – Osaka route from April 21, 2012 when it upgrades the daily service from a Boeing 767-300ER to one of its new 294-seat Airbus A330-200s. This will add more than 30 additional seats on every flight, generating nearly 11,000 additional seats over a full year.

The announcement comes just six months after the carrier inaugurated flights on the route. Hawaiian Airlines launched the Honolulu – Osaka service on July 12, 2011 and has witnessed strong ticket sales from the outset and reports that demand has been increasing steadily over the past months.

An estimated 421,000 O&D passengers flew on the route during the last year and Hawaiian Airlines has already carved out an 8 per cent share of the market, despite only flying for two and a half months during this statistics range. The route is also served on a daily basis by Delta Air Lines and Japan Airlines (JAL).

“Six months ago we introduced a completely new way to enjoy flying to Hawaii for people in the Kansai region and the response has been extremely strong,” said Mark Dunkerley, President and CEO, Hawaiian Airlines. “Introducing our new A330 aircraft to Osaka service will further improve the travel experience for our customers traveling from Kansai and help meet growing demand.”

The past year was one of growth for Hawaiian Airlines as it recorded record passengers numbers. The airline says it carried 8,666,319 passengers during the 2011 calendar year, up 2.9 per cent on the previous year, although loads slipped slightly due to its capacity growth from 85.5 per cent to 84.3 per cent.