Logistics problems have long played a role in preventing airlines from successfully flying between Honolulu and any of the four secondary Los Angeles-basin airports. But Hawaiian Airlines, newly armed with the fuel-efficient, single-aisle Airbus A321neo, believes it can break that precedent.
Beginning May 31, Hawaiian will fly daily to Honolulu from Long Beach, Calif., where it will be conveniently positioned to serve the large Orange County and southern Los Angeles County markets.
The flight will augment the carrier's thrice-daily service between Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and the Hawaiian capital. Five other airlines also fly between LAX and Honolulu, but none operates a route to Hawaii from Long Beach or the Los Angeles area's other three airports: Burbank, Orange County and Ontario.
United halted Orange County's last service to the islands in 2012, and Hawaiian has attempted in the past to fly from Ontario.
Aviation industry analyst Brett Snyder, author of the blog Crankyflier.com, explained that Orange County's short runway makes it difficult for planes burdened with the fuel required to fly to Hawaii to get airborne. As a result, operators have had to fly smaller-than-optimal aircraft for the route or endure frequent, profit-killing weight restrictions.
Burbank also has a short runway, and while Ontario doesn't have that issue, the summer heat of San Bernardino County also serves to make takeoffs challenging at times.
Long Beach has no such issues.
"Long Beach should work for a lot of reasons," Snyder said. "It just requires people knowing the service is there."
One advantage to Long Beach, he added, is that it is convenient to towns such as Gardena and Carson, which are home to sizeable Hawaiian populations.
Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian's vice president of network planning, said the carrier wanted to diversify its Los Angeles-basin offerings.
"Long Beach fit the niche nicely, and the convenience and use of the airport, we believe, will be a great fit for our guests in the area surrounding [Long Beach] and Orange County," he wrote in an email.
But though Long Beach doesn't have runway or heat problems, the airport does have strict limits on daily landings and departures. Hawaiian was able to obtain a highly valued landing slot with an assist from codeshare partner JetBlue, which is Long Beach's largest carrier, serving 17 markets from the city.
On Jan. 3, aware that Hawaiian sat atop the Long Beach airport's landing-slot waitlist, ahead of Southwest and Delta, JetBlue gave up one of its slots.
It was a move that made sense for JetBlue, since it doesn't fly to Hawaii. The carrier plans to reduce a daily frequency on one of the eight cities in the western U.S. that it serves more than once per day from Long Beach, JetBlue spokesman Philip Stewart said.
"We look forward to Hawaiian's arrival and will share details of our expanding codeshare agreement soon," Stewart added.
The new codesharing, however, is likely to be minimal. Hawaiian has geared flight times between Long Beach and Honolulu to serve the local Los Angeles market, with departures from California at 8:30 a.m. and arrivals at 9 p.m.
Overbeek said that robust market demand between Los Angeles and Hawaii will help the service to Honolulu from a secondary Los Angeles-area airport succeed. So, he said, will Hawaiian's new fleet of 189-seat A321neos.
"The A321neo really provides us with the right aircraft to fly the market," Overbeek said. "The combination of the right-sized and optimally configured aircraft and best-in-class unit costs make the A321neo the aircraft for the mission."