Strategic Airlines, a 23-month-old Australian carrier, began taking reservations Monday for new nonstop routes from Brisbane and Melbourne to Honolulu.

Service will begin Dec. 14 from Brisbane and Dec. 15 from Melbourne on a 274-seat A330-200. There will be two departures per week from each city.

Brisbane departures will be Wednesdays and Fridays and Melbourne departures will be Thursdays and Saturdays. The service will start in time for the Australian Christmas and school holidays, Strategic spokeswoman Heather Jeffery said.

The airline confirmed last month it would fly between Brisbane and Honolulu later this year but hadn’t specified Melbourne. At the time, though, David Uchiyama, vice president of brand management for the Hawaii Tourism Authority, said Strategic was considering Melbourne as well.

“Hawaii has enormous destination appeal for Australians and we always believed there would be strong demand from the states of Queensland and Victoria for a direct route to Honolulu,” said Michael James, group managing director and CEO for Strategic. “Response to our new flights from members of the public and from the travel industry has been very encouraging.”

Uchiyama said the new service will open Hawaii to new markets because all the airlines flying now to the islands from Australia come out of Sydney.

Mike McCartney, president and CEO of HTA, said Australian visitors to Hawaii are up 25.5 percent for the first six months of this year over a year ago. He said the new service will generate $62 million in visitor spending and $6.7 million in tax revenue annually.