Scoot, a low-cost airline out of Singapore, is scheduled to touch down this morning with the first direct flight out of that country to Honolulu in 25 years.
It is also the first flight to the U.S. for the 5-year-old carrier.
The Singapore-Honolulu flight has a layover of between one and two hours in Osaka, Japan, as part of its four-days-a-week service.
The last airline to serve Hawaii from Singapore with a direct flight was Singapore Airlines, which canceled its Singapore-Taipei-Honolulu-Los Angeles route in 1992.
A direct flight makes stops along the way to its final destination, as opposed to a nonstop flight, which doesn’t.
“Honolulu is chosen as our first U.S. destination because we believe there’ll be a demand for the route as Hawaii is a popular destination for the sun, sand and sea lovers,” Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin said via email. “It has traditionally attracted mainly the well-heeled due to the high cost of flying there from Southeast Asia. Thus, with this service, Scoot will be the only low-cost carrier with a direct flight between Singapore and Honolulu via Osaka, and therefore we’ll be serving this untapped market segment.”
Last month Scoot created a stir in Hawaii when it announced it would offer a promotional one-way fare of $80 from Honolulu to Osaka, and a $200 one-way fare from Honolulu to Singapore. The deadline to book those fares has passed.
The airline says one-way tickets on those routes from Honolulu typically will start at $240 to Osaka and $400 to Singapore.
Scoot will use a 329-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner for its
Honolulu service. The planes will be hard to miss because of their yellow-and-white color scheme.
Scoot is the low-cost carrier arm of the Singapore Airlines Group.
Scoot flies to 63 destinations across 17 countries.
Osaka-Honolulu already is being served by both Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines as well as Malaysian carrier AirAsia X, which uses Osaka as a stopover after initiating its route from Kuala Lumpur.
“Our transit at Osaka will allow us to tap on the Japanese market, which has a significant demand for services to Hawaii and a significant diaspora in Hawaii,” Lee said.
Lee said he is encouraged by the reception the Honolulu route has received in Singapore.
“The market has been quite excited since we announced our service to Hawaii in July this year,” Lee said. “The response has been encouraging and our inaugural flight into Hawaii is almost full, so we definitely hope we’ll continue to do well.”
