Hawaii will soon have nonstop air service from the three largest markets in Australia.
Jetstar Airways said Wednesday it is reinstating flights between Melbourne and Honolulu for the first time since October 2007.
The Melbourne-based, low-cost carrier will fly twice a week between the two cities beginning Dec. 15 and increase service to three flights a week in March. Jetstar, which will use a 303-seat Airbus A330 on the route, already offers five-days-a-week service — with additional charters — to Honolulu from Sydney.
Jetstar’s addition of Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city with 4.1 million people, comes less than two months after Hawaiian Airlines announced it would begin offering nonstop flights between Honolulu and Brisbane three times a week beginning Nov. 27.
The additions of Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city with 2 million residents, fills the void that was left when startup Air Australia shut down service from those two cities in February.
Sydney, the country’s largest city with 4.6 million people, already is served by Hawaiian, which flies daily to Honolulu, along with Sydney-based Qantas Airways, with three flights a week to Honolulu. Jetstar is a subsidiary of Qantas.
Jetstar’s initial twice-a-week Melbourne route will generate an estimated $59.1 million in visitor spending and $6.4 million in tax revenue annually to the state, according to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.
"The timing of this flight coincides with Australia’s summer holiday season, which will help to further increase visitor arrivals and generate incremental spending and tax revenues for our state," said Mike McCartney, HTA’s president and CEO.
Visitor arrivals from Australia were up 29.8 percent through midyear with 110,066 tourists compared with 84,772 in the year-earlier period, according to HTA.
For 2011, visitor arrivals from Australia hit a record 189,246, up 32.3 percent from 143,096 in 2010.
