Hawaiian Air sets its sights on Brisbane

Hawaiian Airlines is adding a new destination to Australia, eight years after inaugurating service to that country.

The state’s oldest carrier, which has aggressively expanded internationally over the past two years, said Tuesday it will begin offering nonstop flights between Honolulu and Brisbane three times a week beginning Nov. 27. This will be Hawaiian’s second nonstop service to Australia after debuting in Sydney on May 18, 2004, with flights four days a week.

"The Australian economy is doing very well. The Australian dollar is very high against the U.S. dollar and the Australians have a tremendous propensity for travel. All of which combined makes Australia particularly appealing to us right now," said Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines.

Hawaiian’s announcement comes just four months after 2-year-old Air Australia, which offered Ho­no­lulu-Brisbane service, abruptly shut down and was liquidated. Air Australia began offering twice-a-week service from both Brisbane and Melbourne in December only to cease operations in February. The shutdown left about 4,000 passengers stranded systemwide, including 500 to 600 in Hono­lulu.

Dunkerley said Air Australia’s shutdown had nothing to do with Hawaiian’s decision to become the only carrier to offer nonstop service between Brisbane and Honolulu.

"Its shutdown wasn’t a factor in our decision to go there," Dunkerley said. "Brisbane has been in our sights for some time now. As is our custom, we analyze the route, we watch it for a while and, when the time is right, we make our announcement."

Since November 2010, Hawaiian has inaugurated service in Japan to Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka, as well as to Seoul.

Hawaiian also began service earlier this month to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the airline’s first nonstop flight to the East Coast.

Even before Tuesday’s announcement, Hawaiian had been increasing its exposure in Australia. The airline, which last August boosted its Sydney flights to five days a week from four, expanded further in December to daily service. Then in April of this year, Hawaiian increased its capacity on that route by switching to its new 294-seat Airbus A330-200 from its 264-seat Boeing 767-300ER. A Boeing 767 that seats 262 passengers will serve the Brisbane route.

The new Brisbane service will add more than 40,000 seats annually between Australia and Hawaii. The Hawaii Tourism Authority estimates that the Brisbane-Honolulu service will generate $83 million in visitor spending and $9 million in tax revenue annually for Hawaii.

"Hawaiian’s starting of service between Brisbane and Honolulu is great news for our tourism economy," said Mike McCartney, the agency’s CEO.

Brisbane, which is centrally located on Australia’s east coast, is the capital city of the State of Queensland, home of the Great Barrier Reef, rain forests, outback locations and the leisure regions of the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

Australia has been a growing market for Hawaii tourism and is the state’s third-largest international market at 7.5 percent behind Japan, 46.6 percent, and Canada, 18.9 percent.

Visitor arrivals from Australia were up 44.2 percent through April, with 69,867 tourists compared with 48,464 during the first four months of last year. For 2011, visitor arrivals from Australia hit a record 189,070, up 31.5 percent from 143,742 in 2010.

"Sydney is doing well for us," Dunkerley said. "It helped build the confidence we needed to start service to Brisbane."

Hawaiian’s new flights will be timed to connect with same-day service through Queensland and to other states, through an interline partnership with domestic carrier Virgin Australia.

Dunkerley said there were several factors that led to Hawaiian expanding to Brisbane, home to 2 million residents, rather than Melbourne, which is Australia’s second-largest city with 4.1 million people. Sydney is the largest city in Australia with 4.6 million people.

"Brisbane is home to our alliance partner, Virgin Australia, so we already were working very closely with Virgin Australia," Dunkerley said. "We fly into their major hub with great connections all throughout Australia. Secondly, it’s about two hours closer to Honolulu than Melbourne and, third, Queensland, which is where Brisbane is located, is the fastest-growing region of Australia."

The nine-hour flights will leave Honolulu at 10:20 a.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and arrive in Brisbane at 4 p.m. the next day. The return service will depart Brisbane at 6:35 p.m. every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and arrive in Honolulu at 8:05 a.m. the same day.

Ticket sales for the new service will begin at a later date to be announced.

One of the main reasons for the increase in visitor arrivals from Australia is that it’s becoming easier to book a flight from Australia to Hawaii. Besides Hawaiian, Jetstar Airways flies five times a week between Sydney and Honolulu, and Qantas Airways flies four times a week between the same cities. There were 187,116 air seats from Australia to Honolulu in 2011, up 28.4 percent from 145,710 in 2010.

Another primary reason for the influx of Australian visitors to Hawaii is the strength of the Australian dollar, which recently has been roughly on par with the U.S. dollar. Two years ago Aussies could get only 85 U.S. cents for one Australian dollar. In March 2009 the Australian dollar fell as low as 63 cents versus the U.S. dollar. But the Australian dollar has been strengthening and in July 2011 hit a recent high of $1.10 versus the U.S. dollar. The Australian dollar has lost a little of its strength since but is still strong by historical standards. It was trading Tuesday at $1.02 versus the U.S. dollar.